A Magician's Plight
by Guumin
Summary: Patchouli Knowledge is a magician of great prowess and skill far surpassing that of the bumpkin magician. Within her great library; she has dedicated decades of studious research and tiring practice to become a master at the delicate art of magic. Unfortunately, it is this very dedication that makes her the prime candidate to become Myoznitnirn for a questionably sane human King.
1. Act I

**Trying to write something and likely to screw up canon. But then; that is the whole point of fan fiction. Not sure if OOC so please do tell me if anyone is.**

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Patchouli Knowledge, the Unmoving Great Library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was a considered one of the most knowledgeable people within Gensokyo, which was a relative title. Her long purple hair, adjourned with many ribbons, matched her violent and purple daily attire which resembled a pajama.

Currently it only served to make her stand out in her current location. The bright colors of her current attire contrasted harshly with the gloom of the stone room.

She was truly perplexed. She had detected the intrusion on her library in an instant but did not expect the intruder to come in the form of a green portal which quickly sucked her in. In all honesty she had thought that Kirisame had decided to chance another raid despite running into the combined forces of herself, Koakuma, Remi and Sakuya; the latter two coming down to share tea.

And now she was no longer in her library. The grand room which contained the endless rows of magical tomes and grimoires, gathered from across the world, was replaced with this dull and bleak cell.

She swore that if this was some sort of retaliatory prank by that thieving rat then she would… dangerous thoughts of live barbecues and human burials filled her mind as she envisioned what manner of punishment she would have to administer to the human magician.

Her train of thought stopped when she noticed the second occupant of the dreary room. A male human dressed in noble finery consisting of a deep blue fur long coat over a white suit where a crest containing two staves and one crown was proudly displayed on the chest. The most noticeable feature of his appearance was the teal colored hair which was, to her understanding of humans, was unnatural.

"…bless this being and bind it as my familiar."

It took only a moment for Patchouli to recognize the chant as a familiar binding spell and it was moment too late to intervene as a strange magical feeling itched across her forehead.

Her fingers gingerly touched her forehead to feel a series of deep grooves that she assumed to be the seal placed on familiars. She frowned as the foreign magic began to intrude upon her own.

Seeing the human magician making a move towards her; the Youkai magician reacted instinctively.

"Not another step, human." Patchouli commanded in a threatening tone as she began to bring her magic to bear. An armory of spells was already on her mind and only a moment away from being unleashed upon the human magician.

"And if I don't?" the human coldly quipped in return as he slowly lifted his foot to take another step.

The air rippled with shimmering deep blue polygons as scores of triangular blades formed all around her person. The lethal weapons were bristling with barely restrained blood thirst as they directed themselves at the human's heart.

The ease of which her magic flowed through her startled the witch. Whilst Autumn's Blade was a basic metal spell, nearly all her magic caused her discomfort or occasionally pain whilst casting. This interfered with her focus during casting and in general limited her ability as a great magician.

_The sole reason why that bumpkin magician could defeat her. _Patchouli added as anafterthought.

This usually meant she was having one of her good days where her sickness had receded. If only she hadn't already known that this was not the case prior to being kidnapped.

That led her to suspect that the familiar seal had something to do with this. It wasn't uncommon for masters to give their familiar powers to make them more useful.

Nevertheless the human did correctly stopped and returned his foot, keeping a composed face as he faced the array of sharp missiles inches away from taking his life.

As he waited for Patchouli to make a move, said magician was busy processing the situation.

She has been apparently summoned by an unknown male magician, already ruling out the possibility of her still being in Gensokyo. The chances of her not being aware of a male magic user within the small boundaries of Gensokyo were slim; considering the disparity of gender in the Eastern Wonderland.

His attire and facial features suggested that he was of western origins so she was probably in Europe instead of Japan. The boring appearance of the room itself also hinted at a western theme; unless Japan had decided to build western themed buildings in the century or so she was in Gensokyo.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she realized that she couldn't sense his magic reserves. That itself was impossible. Even humans with no experience in magic had a miniscule amount of magic within them that would only grow if they nurtured it with practice.

By summoning her; the human had proven himself a magician. Yet he was empty of any magic at all. It was like there was a void within him.

"What is your intent in summoning me?" Patchouli asked, keeping her blades at ready.

Yes, she could investigate his _lack_ of magic later. The present situation was far more demanding.

The human seemed to think over his choices before answering. When he did it was in the same confident tone he used earlier; not the least intimidated by the sharpened metal hovering before him. "I need a familiar."

Patchouli Knowledge, the centuries old Witch of Spring Haze, become a familiar to a human magician. She scoffed at the very thought of that. Even Marisa Kirisame didn't have the audacity to suggest something as ludicrous as this.

She ignored the fact that he had already branded her as his familiar. That predicament itself was simple to resolve. Familiar contracts required a _living_ master and familiar. Remove one and the contract will be null.

Still one shouldn't resort to such a crude method immediately. She still didn't know for absolute certainty that this wasn't Gensokyo and the last thing she needed was a nigh invulnerable Shrine Maiden chasing after her for killing a human.

"I refuse." Patchouli answered, the blades disappearing back into nothingness as she showed her intent to talk this out instead of outright attacking him. The human didn't even bat an eye at the disappearance choosing to maintain his still demeanor.

"I am busy with research on protection spells for tomes and I have sparse time to play servant for another." Patchouli continued. She was close to finally completing the perfect defense for her books against the thieving rat in light of the inability of the cats to consistently stop Kirisame's constant intrusions.

"Simply remove the seal and this can end without conflict." She offered to the human. She didn't need to add that she could likely force the end of the contract if he refused.

"I'm afraid I cannot do that." The human replied. As Patchouli's eyes narrowed, the human quickly continued. "The seal cannot be undone."

"If it was done then it can be undone." Patchouli insisted. What magician would use magic without fully understanding it first? It left too many chances for mistakes; which in the craft of magic could prove fatal. "Unless you mean to tell me that you're superbly incompetent."

"My magic is quite unique in my world and not fully understood. And openly practicing it may earn the attention of some… dangerous person." The human defended himself with.

So he was a hedge mage or something similar practicing forbidden magic and hiding it from someone of unknown power. Nevertheless… "You're problems are not my own."

"I would disagree; you're still my familiar if there is no means to remove the runes." The human countered.

"Killing you could remove it." Patchouli suggested; putting it as a statement rather than a threat on his life. It would remove her ability to discern the nature of his interesting lack of magic but such a thing wasn't interesting enough to warrant herself being stuck as his familiar.

"Unfortunately, I would rather not die."

"As I said, you're problems are not my own."

There was a brief moment of silence as Patchouli debated on whether she should forcibly end the contract. "Tell me, do the terms Gensokyo or Japan mean anything to you."

"And what if they don't?" the human cautiously replied.

That was all the confirmation needed. This was in fact no Gensokyo, and it was questionably not even Earth. The probability of her being in another dimension went up proportionally. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility for her to be summoned to another dimensional plane. She herself summoned Koakuma from Makai.

And while it meant that the Hakurei wouldn't come to exterminate her; it also gave her the problem of being in another unknown plane that was not her own.

She briefly entertained the though of the Gap Youkai would chance across this world and pick her up. Given her dedication towards the defense of Gensokyo and her lazy personality in regards to everything else; the chances of such encounter occurring were not in her favor.

Still… being trapped upon another dimensional plane was no laughing matter. Back in her library where all her tomes and resources were; it would still take months of preparation for her to prepare a successful to and return trip for Makai.

Of course this time she didn't need the return part; however she was left without the knowledge that her library provided. And while she herself was her greatest asset; she still needed material and equipment which were no longer available to her here. It would likely take longer than a year before she was prepared to return. This was hardly an inconvenience considering the life time of an average Youkai.

Perhaps it was better to remain as his _familiar_ for the time being. The boost in magic would likely prove to be beneficial. At least until she could properly identify whether this boost in her magic was the result of the runes or otherwise.

"Are you perhaps not human?" the human magician suddenly asked.

"What a brilliant deduction." Patchouli said off-handedly in a sarcastic tone. "Was it when I called you a human or did you finally notice my aura is different to humans?"

The Youkai magician ignored the human magician as she thought over her next move. She was still bound to the human and was stuck in another dimensional plane with next to no resources or support.

Still that did mean that the Spell Cards Rules were off so she was free to use her powers to defend herself. That and the said runes engraved on her forehead appeared to be some boost to her magical abilities far surpassing that of her ribbons. She was certain that she should be capable of defending herself from threats.

Her current condition was near perfect and it was as if she did not suffer from poor health at all. Likely due to whatever positive effects the runes were bestowing upon her. Still the fear that such an effect would wear off while facing a threat was foreboding.

She glanced at the human magician. Killing him would not serve to aid her in any manner aside from perhaps giving her the satisfaction of dealing with the instigator of her problems.

"Perhaps this is a bit late but I am Joseph de Gallia, King of Gallia. And you are?" de Gallia introduced himself.

Patchouli gave him a thoughtful look as this small tidbit of information brought new prospective options. "I am Patchouli Knowledge."

Certainly his title of King did not impress her in the least; but it did mean whoever he hid his _unique_ magic from was a tad more significant that she had first assumed. If this Gallia was a kingdom them the unknown threat was likely the leader of a larger kingdom or empire.

Still that did not concern her. What did concern her was that she now had a means of obtaining resources. If this was an absolute monarchy then it was certain that she could obtain what she needed from him: from mundane things like writing equipment to more expensive ingredients such as chemicals like arsenic and mercury.

But he was a human and he had already made his intent clear. Nothing was free in her world and it unlikely to be any different here. In exchange for anything she asked for; he will demand something in return.

"Perhaps we can come to an arrangement." Strangely it was the human that offered this, not her. "There must be something I can offer for your services. As the king of one of Halkegenia's wealthiest nations; there is little I cannot attain."

"Access to all archives regarding magic and an unlimited budget in regards to whatever I choose." Patchouli demanded. There was no reason to investigate his oddity in magic while she was here. Whatever tasks he had could not be too difficult for a magician of her caliber to achieve anyway.

Her first priority would still be in researching a means to return to Gensokyo. After she was certain of a safe return; then she could turn her attention to learning more; safe in the knowledge that if something were to go wrong then she had a ready escape route.

"Done, on the condition that you will perform the tasks I assign you." de Gallia agreed without hesitation.

"As long as I retain the right to refuse if the task is unreasonable; then there is no problem with that." Patchouli added as insurance.

de Gallia's eyes twitched slightly in displeasure but otherwise didn't show any other sign as he nodded his agreement. "That is acceptable."

"Then I will… assist you for whatever you're doing." Patchouli concluded.

"Excellent." de Gallia clapped his hands together and the door behind him opened. A small girl with the same odd shade of teal hair entered the room.

Adjourned in a robe that was far too large for her small physique; her face shared the earlier impassiveness that the King of Gallia had shown earlier. Her grip on the staff that was twice her height trembled as she saw de Gallia.

Unlike the King; this human's reserve was far easier to detect. While nowhere to the same scale as Kirisame; the girls own magic was sizable for one so young. Though she doubted that it would match Kirisames' even should they be the same age.

The bumpkin magician had at least one thing going for her: what she lacked in prowess she made up for in sheer power.

"This is Tabitha. She'll see to your needs for now." de Gallia waved off. "A few days to adjust yourself here, hmm? I'll give you something to do later."

Patchouli narrowed her eyes at the sudden display of arrogance. The manner in which he assumed that he had complete authority over her was a stark contrast to his more cautious nature. The man was certainly an oddity.

It reminded her of Remi in a sense. The manner in which she assumed the Patchouli would follow after her in whatever scheme she concocted. The main difference being that while Remi's trivial schemes were a pain; she was willing to follow her rashness. They were best friends after all.

She wondered how Remi would take the news of her being summoned and becoming the familiar of a human.

…

Patchouli deadpanned at the thought. Remi would probably just laugh at her plight while Sakuya expressed her sincere apologies at Remi's thoughtlessness.

She missed her library already.

This man on the other hand… he just reeked of sourness.

Further investigation on him was necessary to analyze him. If she could understand him better then it would allow her to predict his moves better.

There was a brief thought of telling him something along the lines of "she wasn't a servant" or the like but she decided against it. Such things would merely make her seem pathetic.

If she was to ever need to work against him then it was far more logical to lull him into a false sense of security over her loyalty. It was only then could any threats from her could be substantiated.

Without another word in answer; Patchouli followed after the small girl out of the room. The dim room she was summoned in was replaced with a long corridor that was just as barely illuminated with sparse torches spread out across its long width.

"Where?" uttered the quiet girl in the form a short vague question.

"Everywhere please." Patchouli answered just as vaguely. She may as well learn the premises of wherever this was.

Understanding this; Tabitha led Patchouli along the deep corridor before taking a left and pulling open a stoic oak door that let in mornings sunlight. Walking through; Patchouli was then given a bland tour of the palace.

It was bland in that; there was hardly any interaction being her guide and herself aside from the brief mention of the name of the particular section of the palace. The small girl seemed to be the extremely quiet type.

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Tabitha watched the violet clad mage in the corner of her eyes as she lead her towards the small empty wing of the palace that was to house her uncle's new familiar. She had eavesdropped on the conversation she had with her uncle and discerned a few things about her.

It was clear that she was not familiar with Halkegenia and her reference to this 'Gensokyo' and 'Japan' only made her status as a foreigner to these lands clear. Her place of origin was likely somewhere east of the Holy Lands; likely Rub Al'Khali.

However her mention of not being human set that off. While her long hair mostly obscured it; her ears were definitely not pointed meaning that she was no elf and there were no other demi-humans who resembled humans this closely.

Quite frankly; she had no idea what she was and what she was capable of; and that scared Tabitha. Unlike the orcs, ogres and other monsters she dealt with on the uncle's suicide missions; she didn't have an inkling on what to expect except that she was likely skilled in the magical arts.

This almost certainly meant that her supposedly safer assignment of watching over her uncle's new familiar and stopping her if she went on a rampage was equally as dangerous as clearing out a den of wild drakes.

But, for once, she would hopefully not be alone in attempting to detain her if by chance this Patchouli Knowledge did go on a rampage. This was the Palace of Versailles and there was a full contingent of Royal Guards stationed inside. Even her uncle wouldn't be mad enough to withhold them while the palace was destroyed piece by piece.

"Is there somewhere isolated nearby?" the woman she was leading asked behind her.

"Why?" Tabitha inquired. So far she had made little conversation with her, admittedly her own subdued nature attributed to this.

Several possibilities of what her motives could be drilled through Tabitha.

The most prominent would be her using this chance to eliminate watcher and escape from the palace. It would leave her undetected for a variable amount of time and wouldn't bring the wrath of the entire palace guard down upon her.

"There is some magic I wish to test. You may observe if you deign to."

Tabitha hesitantly nodded. There was no good excuse to refuse her. She could at least take advantage of her not fully knowing the layout of the palace and lead her through sections where they were in plain sight.

At the very least a few of the Royal Guards will notice where she is heading and note the unfamiliar person she was towing behind her.

And she had the perfect location. The destination was mostly empty and yet not too far from the main palace. The palace's gardens were wide and extensive and aside from the gardeners; there was hardly anyone there since the current King preferred to stay indoors.

Not at all like her father.

Tabitha brushed away the thought like a fly. Her father didn't matter anymore. Dead was dead. Her mother was what was important.

The duo scored a few interested looks as the passed by the numerous inhabitants of the castle. Suspicious glares were sent their way from the armed retainers of the palace while there were more interested looks from the common servants who toiled about their work.

The early morning sun shone down on them as the exited the grand doors the led to the garden of the Palace of Versailles. The entire 8 square kilometers garden was one of the grandest and most beautiful landmarks in the whole of Halkegenia.

However access to it was severely limited. Aside from the gardeners who maintained the botany; only the Royal family, and whoever they choose to invite in, had free access to the garden. Given Joseph de Gallia's disposition; it has rarely been used ever since her grandfather's time.

That of course didn't stop from entering the garden. Even if she was no longer considered royalty; no one would dare stop her. She was, after all, a Knight of the North Panterre and therefore acted with the king's authority.

The end destination was about full circle with its entire circumference built of tall hedges with the exception of the entrance to which there was an arch adjourned with exquisite flowers. A marble fountain lay at the very center with rows of flowerbeds built circling away from it.

"Is this it?" Patchouli asked as she scanned the area. "I had hoped it would be farther but this will suffice. Regardless, you have my thanks."

Tabitha nodded in acknowledgement and took a few steps back as the inhuman mage stepped forward. When Patchouli's feet began to levitate off the ground and glide towards the center; Tabitha took a few seconds to understand the significance of such an action.

While levitating itself was a basic dot level spell; it was done without a wand or any form of foci at all. In fact now that she looked deeper; there appeared to be no incantations or even a gesture to signal her use of magic.

Speaking in an unknown dialect; Tabitha could feel the power behind each syllable that Patchouli uttered. Her earlier astonishment was trumped as she speechlessly watched the strange mage conjure a great wave of ball of fire.

The fireball itself was a giant compared to the puny mage that was keeping it hovering above her head with no visible effort. Yet despite all the obvious flames that Tabitha could see; there was no heat emitting from it.

"The spirit populations of this world appear to be more powerful and dense." Tabitha heard Patchouli say to herself amidst the crackling flames of her red ball of flame.

"I hypothesize that the science of this world is not on par with my own, resulting in a stronger belief in the supernatural aspect of the world. The lack of any strain on my abilities is likely the result of the strengthening that these runes provide."

Patchouli paused for a moment as if to look at something before continuing her emotionless monologue. "The fact that they are glowing during this process indicates that they have affected my magic in a beneficial manner."

"Furthermore the improvement on my physical health is likely a side effect of the runes. Understanding and replicating such runes will be extremely beneficial in the long term."

There was a long pause as Patchouli closed her eyes in thought. "Kirisame is likely to empty half my library by the time I return. However returning with these runes keeping me fit will make me more than a match for the mushroom magician. Probability of retrieval of all stolen books at full health: 100 percent."

By now screams could be heard from afar as the ball of fire only enlarged in size as Patchouli continued on with speaking aloud what appeared to be research notes. Tabitha was now also starting to edge towards the entrance of the circle of hedges.

While the flames didn't seem to be burning anything or even giving out any head whatsoever. She was already sweating from the anxiety of staring at the huge flaming ball of death.

Her uncle's orders were specific: to act as an assistant to his new familiar and watch their every move until he says otherwise. If there were to start having traitorous intentions or genuinely threaten him; then she was to confront them and execute them.

At first she was confused at how he didn't send her on a near impossible mission to get her killed in action like he usually did. Now she understood that her chances of beating Patchouli in a direct confrontation were near zero.

Her uncle worded his orders very specifically. And since he wants her to directly confront a being like this; she knew that he wanted her to get killed again.

Tabitha sighed. It was just another ordinary day then.

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**Millet Soup is the most heartwarming soup. (For all those that know what Millet Soup is)**


	2. Act II

**Sorry if this chapter is shorter. I tend to end them whenever it feels right and adding new things in between just feels like filler.**

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So far; Patchouli was extremely disappointed with the much vaunted Royal Library. Its size was limited to a single room and number of books didn't even pass a hundred.

That and the fast majority of them had utterly no relevance to magic or even general information about her whereabouts. The few that caught her interest was mostly books about this Halkegenia and specifically Gallia.

From what she had learned from them; Halkegenia was a skew parallel with her worlds Europe with the individual kingdoms split similarly. If she couldn't already understand them; then she would have suspected that they spoke French in Gallia, Dutch in Tristain, German in Germania and perhaps Latin in Romalia.

Gallia itself shared many names and titles originating from her France. This palace in the city of Versailles was an equivalent to the Palace of Versailles southwest of Paris.

Still, as interesting as these comparisons were; they were of significance. What she needed was information on more magical aspects of Halkegenia, more specifically; this 'unique' magic that was used to summon her here.

While Tabitha did not understand most of what she wanted, she had procured a promise from the silent girl to retrieve a number of tomes from the _real_ library further in the city.

She would go herself; but even if her body's natural illnesses were withheld, she was never fond of venturing outside any longer than necessary.

So here Patchouli was. Shut in within the large office that was meant to be a library reading a small book on Albion while she awaited her watchdog to return with the books she requested.

Actually, Tabitha was probably waiting outside the door while someone else was fetching the books. The whole point of a watchdog was to watch her and she couldn't do that if she was miles away.

Sighing; Patchouli continued her read on the book about the flying island kingdom that was Albion. She couldn't comprehend how an entire island was floating independently without aid and was most interested in researching further.

At the very least the room was near soundproof. Only the sound of wind gently rushing through the open window could be heard. The rest of the palace was trapped away by a set of thick…

Patchouli blinked and snapped her head to the window. Only when she saw that there was no black shadow fast approaching or any signs of intrusion did she relax.

The country rat had a very unique and annoying ability to intrude whenever she let herself relax about how tranquil things were. It was sixth sense she unconsciously honed during the times that she knew Kirisame.

There was a common saying among humans about how if you speak of the devil then he shall come.

It was an adequate saying for when another young girl burst through the door followed by two timid maids. Noticeably she had the same unique teal hair that Tabitha and de Gallia had; though hers was by far longer than either of the afore mentioned, stretching down to her back.

Considering her dress and hair; she was likely a noblewoman of some kind related to de Gallia or Tabitha. That was unless blue hair was common in this world. She wouldn't know; she had always declined de Gallia's offer of accompany him while he held court.

"You!" the girl roared as she pointed an accusing finger at her. Her eyes filled with unreasonable anger and contempt.

"Who are you?" Patchouli asked in return her eyes not leaving her book. Either the human girl was mistaking her for someone else or she had some unreasonable reason to be angry at her. Humans were rather simple like that.

The girls eyes widened in surprise before being replaced with an even more indignant face if that were possible. This meant she was an egoist, leading her to believe that she was the daughter of someone highly placed or she was simply deluding herself thinking that the world cared the slightest about her.

"You don't know me!?" the girl screeched in fury as she strode closer.

Patchouli tore her eyes from the book to glance at the girl glaring at her. "If I knew then I would not have asked."

Pretending to be not put off by how casually Patchouli dismissed her; she adopted an elegant poise. "Well, I am Isabella de Gallia, Princess of the Kingdom of Gallia and line class wind mage."

If that was meant to stir some emotion in the Youkai then it was working. Currently Patchouli was currently feeling slight annoyance at the continued interruption.

That she was the daughter of her _master_ didn't really matter that much. That she was a princess mattered even less so. And to the best of her knowledge; a line class mage was essentially a fourth rate magician.

Speaking of de Gallias'. The man had hardly bothered her in the days she had been here. What was the point of summoning a familiar if one didn't make use of one?

Not that she was complaining. If all he wanted her to do was clean rooms or something; then she would refuse. He had plenty of servants of his own to do that menial kind of work. Eliminating some monster or something was far more deserving of her talents.

This time Patchouli's eyes didn't leave her book as the princess waited impatiently for some response from her. Idiots were best left alone to their devices so as to not bother the more intelligent people from doing important tasks.

"Are you ignoring me?!" the bothersome princess screeched again after a few seconds of silence.

"Y… your highness, she's…" the anxious maid tried to warn. Everyone who was in the palace and had eyes could have seen the momentous fireball that was generated in the southern parterre. The sheer size of the fireball and the fact that the southern parterre was still intact suggested an impressive amount of power and skill which only a square class could manage.

It was the word of a scared witless gardener that everyone knew the source. Two individuals had entered and left the parterre at a time which coincided with the appearance of the ball of supernatural flames.

One was the former lady Charlotte de Orleans, now Tabitha and recognized as an extremely talented triangle class wind mage; ruling her out as the one who could have made the fireball. That left only her companion who was now currently trying to ignore the heir to the throne.

"Back." Turning her head; Patchouli spotted the small Tabitha squeezing past the duo of maids carrying a large stack of tomes and books that was nearly taller than her. Her face was completely blocked off from view by the books which begged the question of she was managing to walk without dropping them or hitting anything.

The Princess was stupefied as Tabitha brushed past her and laid the stack of resource materials onto the desk with a resounding thump.

"Thank you." Patchouli politely thanked as Tabitha retrieved a single book from the top of the stack and took a seat opposite Patchouli. Carefully opening her own book; Tabitha returned to immerse herself in whatever story she was reading.

Now… her summoner had stated that his magic was along the lines of being something forbidden and unique. That by itself rules out the measly four elements that she had noted to be practiced here.

Furthermore he had said that openly practicing it would attract dangerous attention. Considering he is the king of a rather powerful country in relative terms; that would mean this dangerous entity had to be someone or something with more power and influence than he.

"You!?" the princess screeched once again. Patchouli's train of thought broke with the loud interruption. She irritably glared at the princess who simply ignored it as her attention focused on Tabitha.

Tabitha broke off her book and looked at the princess. Her eyes twinkled with recognition as she saw the princess. "Commander."

"Don't 'Commander' me!" she harshely scolded the girl. Turning back to face Patchouli; her face screaming outrage. "Why is the doll here with you?"

"Assistant." Tabitha answered.

"Watchdog." Patchouli corrected, immediately understanding the derivative name used was designed for Tabitha. It made sense and rather suited her considering her never changing emotionless face and her small stature.

Tabitha didn't seem to mind the correction and accepted the designation that her charge gave for her.

"I never gave you any orders to watch miss purple!" the princess shouted throwing her arm about to emphasize the amount of _violet_ that Patchouli was wearing.

So this girl was Tabitha's superior? If she was like this all the time; then Patchouli felt a bit of sympathy for the human girl.

"Why would she need your orders?" Patchouli spoke up. If Tabitha required orders from the princess; then she was in charge of something. Considering her aptitude; she was either a ceremonial leader or a lame duck leader for some group of knights or something akin.

"Because I'm the commander of the Knights of the Northern Parterre." The girl spurted out without thought. Both her maids visibly flinched at this open admission to something that was intended to be kept quiet.

"Knights of the Northern Parterre?" Patchouli questioned as she encouraged the talkative girl to continue. It was strange name to give to an order of knights, named after a formalized garden no less.

"Your highness, we shouldn't…" one of the maids started.

"Nonsense, as father's personal assistant, she has a right to know who her colleagues are to be." The princess rudely interrupted.

Her face dawned in realization as she recalled her purpose in confronting the strange person who suddenly became her father's personal assistant. "Ah, that's right! Who are you?"

"What are these knights?" Patchouli asked again, this time directing her question to the more likable Tabitha.

"Secret." Tabitha answered. Patchouli frowned at her answer. It appeared that her watchdog and _assistant_ was intelligent enough to know that divulging what was meant to be civil secrets to someone with questionable loyalty was a bad idea.

"Are you listening to me!?" the princess shouted to put attention back onto her.

"It is difficult to ignore you." Patchouli answered truthfully. As much as she may dislike it; talking to the girl was likely to gleam her something interesting and more importantly; get her away.

The princess, in a rare moment of restrain as noted by Patchouli, stifled whatever she was going to say and repeated her first question. "Who are you?"

"Patchouli Knowledge." She gave her name to the girl. At least she wouldn't be 'You!' all the time.

"How did you suddenly get so close to father?!" the princess demanded. So this was a fit of jealousy?

Patchouli wouldn't really describe her relation to the man as close. They had hardly talked in days. Unfortunately; when she tried to point this out to the girl and get her to leave, she didn't take it so well.

"My father isn't a man that would trust a stranger to such a high position." The princess stated in frustration.

"I was not aware I even possessed any position within his court." She rebuked with impunity. "Now if you may; leave. I am busy."

Now; there were two likely possibilities of groups that could threaten de Gallia. One was either the Emperor of the Germanian Empire or someone highly placed in his court. The other option was this church, which was based around this world's Jesus Christ figure, in Romalia.

Given the association that religious organizations had with magic; it was likely the Romalian Empire, or their church more specifically, that would persecute de Gallia for practicing his 'unique' magic. It certainly did fit in with the forbidden magic hype.

"How dare you address royalty as such? I could have you stripped and whipped for such disrespect."

Patchouli raised an eyebrow at the girl as she once again broke her train of thoughts. If nothing else she was persistent in her unreasonable hatred. "As amusing as it would be to see you fail, you have wasted enough of my time and I have none to spare for you."

Not really true considering she was actually responding to her outbursts but she was used to dealing with an angry Flandre who was capable of far more frightening threats and actually had the power to back them up.

When dealing with people such as this; it was either throw them out or let them run out of steam. As much as she might act _with the king's permission_, she doubted that she could get away with sending his daughter out a window as she did with Kirisame on occasion.

It was at this point that the whole family was reunited. Uninvited; Joseph de Gallia walked into the room, brushing past the two maids who were struggling to perform a bow fast enough.

"F…father!" the princess gasped out in surprise, her voice shifting to a far softer tone in dealing with the man who sired her.

"Out." The king uttered harshly. The assembled females in the room looked at him oddly.

"Out now!" he ordered loudly with a trace of anger in his voice. The maids were scurrying out by then followed closely by a shamed princesess who shot a damning look at Patchouli.

Tabitha carefully closed her book, marking the specific page, before she too joined the exodus out of the palace room. The girl glanced warily back at the king, who in turn ignored her, as she left the room.

Sighing in annoyance, Patchouli made ready to exit her chair before de Gallia waved her to stay. "You stay."

The Youkai raised an eyebrow in interest at the manner of his tone. It was once again the same calculative tone she had seen during their first encounter. The touch of arrogance was missing again.

"How have you been finding the facilities?" he asked in a way that suggested that he didn't really care in any way.

"Inadequate." Patchouli answered in disdain.

"How so?" de Gallia continued his polite inquiry.

"This isn't a library, rather it is an office." Patchouli stated pointing out the rather obvious.

"My apologies, I had cleared the majority of the books to make room for more practical things." de Gallia apologized without sounding the least apologetic.

"Of course you did." She wrote off nonchalantly.

"Nevertheless; there is something I want you to do." de Gallia stated; thus invoking the contract that they had agreed upon.

"And that is?"

"Help me start a revolution in Albion."

So de Gallia was that type of master. The kind that would use their familiar to do all the dirty work for them and keep their own hands clean from any blame.

"And why would you want to cause an event like that." She inquired.

"I have my reasons."

"That you are not telling me." Patchouli noted.

"Secrets are only shared among trusted allies. I'm sorry but given how you threatened to kill me earlier; I don't fully trust you." He bluntly replied.

Patchouli shrugged at that. He had a fair point. She wasn't all that interested in knowing why he wanted a rebellion in another kingdom anyway. It wasn't very difficult to imagine why a king of a powerful nation would want to drastically weaken another sovereign kingdom.

"Very well then, what exactly do you need me to do?"

"Arson mostly; my agents are there will guide you into what you need to destroy. Given your demonstration a few days ago, I'm sure this will be no problem for you."

"How exactly is simple arson going to cause a rebellion?" Patchouli asked. She would freely admit that creating discontent and causing rebellions was not in her expertise.

"Not just arson. That is simply what I want you to do. I have others performing more subtler tasks such as rerouting goods and spreading less than favorable rumors about the royals."

Before Patchouli could speak; de Gallia apparently decided that this was a good time to get into a monologue. Likely he either enjoyed listening to his own voice, which she doubted, or he wanted to lord over his superior knowledge over this topic to make himself more superior to her, which is the more likely option.

"You see; people need to reach their own conclusions before they take action. Dictating to them who to blame means nothing in the long term if people begin to self-doubt their choice. Letting him come to the conclusion he is right will make them more confident in what they are doing."

"Deliberately ruin a man's business by destroying his stock and he will look for someone to blame. What we need to do is make sure that such blame goes towards the royals."

"The commoners are simple enough. With enough problems that seemingly stem from the royal family; all it takes is enough people speaking aloud of rebellion to get the ball rolling."

"Alas commoners by themselves could never hope to defeat the royal army; what with all their mages and trained soldiers with proper weapons and fancy training." de Gallia said much like how a narrator would say in an act.

"No, the nobles themselves must be brought to open rebellion. Fortunately; as much as they would deny it, nobles are as simple as commoners. Link enough of their problems to the royals and they will snap out of their _oppression_."

"You seem rather sure of that people will blame the royal family." Patchouli interjected.

"I am. The current Tudor family isn't well known for the right reasons. Though there is one more problem I would need you to fix." The king said as reached inside his robe.

"Within the thorns that is the Tudors; there is but a single rose that the masses adore. A single man that could redeem their whole family given the chance." de Gallia said with effect.

"Of course this won't do at all. The Tudors can't have a shining star within them." Pulling a scroll out of his attire; he unfurled it to reveal the face of a handsome blond young man. "This is Prince Wales of Albion. I need you to kill him."

* * *

**Millet Soup is still the best soup.**


	3. Act III

**I can't imagine it would be too hard to guess who Patchouli is talking to. It will certainly change the ideology of a certain person later on though and make what he is doing more 'good' rather than simple being the cliché power hungry character who suffers from PIS.**

* * *

Patchouli Knowledge was no longer wearing her usual and preferred attire. Due to how much it stood out, she had conceded de Gallia's point that she should wear something less unique in its design to blend in better.

Of course since her hair was purple; it was still a dead giveaway that she was a magician. A common theme in this land was that everyone who could utilize magic had colorful hair while the commoners were limited to black and brown pigments.

As such she was given a fanciful blue dress not to unlike what other female mages wore nowadays, or so she was told. Draped over her was an even deeper blue hooded cloak, which she now used to hide herself away from the other passengers.

The ship she was travelling on was one reserved for the wealthy. Of course being funded by the King; she received VIP status and was given her own suite on the ship compared to the small rooms that the minor nobles and wealthy merchants had.

Unfortunately; she still had to return to the fourth deck to dine with everyone else much to her dislike. It wasn't that she disliked having company; but rather the loud noise and banter that accompanied large dining rooms was very distracting to her.

Choosing a table at the very corner of the grand room; Patchouli ignored the priest on the stage as he lead the entire room into prayers before eating.

"Oh, Great Founder Brimir, we thank you for this humble meal that you have graciously provided us."

Patchouli scoffed at the words but did so in a manner that wouldn't attract attention. The meal was provided by chefs in the floor below and the ingredients were provided by toiling commoners in fields. The Founder did nothing except ensure that the commoners, for the most part, worked under bad conditions without complaint.

Ignoring the priest as he rattled on, Patchouli thought on her assignment: the assassination of Prince Wales of Albion. She must admit; she had never imagined that she would play assassin for a king.

The Royal Family was housed in Londonium. The palace itself was sure to be heavily guarded and warded against intruders. She couldn't simply destroy the whole palace because otherwise there would be no Royal Family left to rebel against.

Upon arrival in Londonium, de Gallia's agent was supposed to guide her to her accommodations for the duration of her assignment. While she didn't know who it was exactly; she had managed to squeeze the fact that the agent was a noble lady out of him.

This noble lady was supposed to pay for whatever expenses she may incur and to provide information and advice whenever she may require it.

And that was all the aid that de Gallia had given her. She wasn't unsure of whether this was some test of her abilities or he expected her to accomplish this by herself.

Personally she had no detailed plan on how she was to kill a prince. She was a scholarly magician not some skulking assassin. She could be a decent combatant and, considering the powers of the magicians here, could overpower most humans in this world. But killing wasn't really her _thing_.

The best idea she had been able to compile so far was her summoning a blade away from her and firing it at the Prince at high velocities while he was out in the open. But that left too many things to chance such as her aim and there was the possibility that he may survive the attack regardless.

A full complement of Autumn's Blade could be used. Force Lasher was also a possibility. But both required her target to be out in the open, which was not certain, and required her aim to be accurate which she was, again, not confident about.

Danmaku wasn't centered on accurate aiming; otherwise battles would be over far quicker. Instead it was focused on creating beautiful and complex attacks to dazzle both your opponent and audience.

The last _real_ battle she had been in was centuries ago when Remi and Flandre were still being pursued by human vampire hunters. Admittedly, the vast majority of them was pathetically weak and ended up as Flandre's _toys_; they were at least trying to kill them and could thus be considered a _real_ combat situation.

"Milady, I see you were not praying."

Glancing up from her meal; she saw that the middle-aged blond priest had taken a seat at her otherwise empty table. He gave a warming smile when he saw that he had successfully attracted her attention.

Patchouli mentally shuddered. She could already predict the sermon that the priest was likely going to give to her on the topic of his Founder and why she should be more faithful to him.

"I can understand that not all may feel indebted to the Founder but even so we must not forget his work forged our current society." The priest dictated to her.

"Yes, I can see that." Patchouli sarcastically responded.

The priest frowned at the poorly hidden sarcasm but showed no sign of the outward hostility she had expected from a man of devout faith.

"Tell me, how do you have faith in a religion which teaches the majority of its followers to cater to the whims of the privileged minority?" Patchouli challenged.

The priest didn't seem the least perturbed by the question which, she supposed, would be hinging on heresy for him. Rather he seemed more comfortable as if he was heading into familiar territory.

"Ah, I see. There has been a noble who has mistreated you in the past." The priest assumed.

Patchouli's first thought was towards de Gallia and then the second de Gallia. The first was an oddity and probably power hungry while the second seemed to be the personification of the prejudices of noble arrogance.

Still she couldn't truthfully answer that she was mistreated. She was serving de Gallia with her own intentions in mind and the princess was more annoying rather than abusive.

"That is an incorrect assumption." Patchouli decided on. "The question was pertaining to you rather than me."

"Well then… uh… I do admit that the behaviors of some nobles are… questionable." The priest awkwardly admitted and glanced over his shoulder to ensure he wasn't being watched by the many nobles on board.

"But you cannot generalize them all. There are many who are great men and woman." He continued more confidently.

Patchouli nodded her agreement to this sentiment. She would have to concede that point. There were always those who would stand out for good deeds, almost exclusive to those who had their noblesse oblige.

"True, but which of the two clearly dominates noble society?" Patchouli pressed onto the priest.

"The former." The priest grudgingly admitted. "But are you not a noble yourself?"

"And what constitutes a noble? Birthright or actions?" she reflected the question.

She wasn't sure herself if she was a noble by their standards. She could perform magic but she had none of the noble names and traditions that accompanied nobility.

"I do not understand." The priest stated in confusion.

"Say; an aristocrat watches as a building burns with people inside and decides it is not his business and a commoner runs in to save the family trapped within; who is the nobler one?" Patchouli said, giving an answer to prove her point.

"You have no proof that a noble will not take action in such an event. Furthermore it is just as likely that it will be the noble that takes action rather than the commoner." He responded and countered.

"It was a hypothetical question." Patchouli admitted and gave up on the notion.

There was a moment of silence as the priest took a drink from his cup while Patchouli continued her meal.

"You realize milady." The priest said as he broke the silence. "These questions borders on heresy."

She couldn't really be bordering on heresy considering she was never a follower of his religion in the first place. Though considering that it would be strange for a _noble lady_ to not believe in a religion which gave her the position she supposedly had.

"Perhaps, but it is a scholars occupation to challenge pre-existing concepts." Patchouli replied with practiced ease.

"As long as they are within reason." The priest insisted.

"And I suppose your church decides on what is 'within reason'." Patchouli accused softly.

Of course the priest chose to stay quiet on that question.

Another factor was the faction that dictated said religion. It was not unreasonable to think that perhaps they keep societies from developing out of their reach to maintain their de facto power.

The Romalian Empire was not too unlike the Papal States of old. They were simply far more successful in exerting influence in their sphere of influence, which was probably every nation in Halkegenia with the possible exception of the Germanian Empire.

Their success was likely due to a real and relatable foe called the Elves. She didn't know how much of their powers were exaggerated but from all accounts they were far more powerful than the average human mage. Playing on a real threat to humanity as a whole gave them legitimacy as the leader against said threat.

Their rigidness on tradition may also link to why their technology was so primitive even after so many millennia. The Founder's time was 6000 years ago and civilization, while archaic, was developed. Nowadays; it appears their technology had so far peaked at gun powder while the last time she checked on her world; they were building rockets to the moon and weapons of mass destruction.

"And technology, when was the last time there had been any major leaps in your technology?" Patchouli inquired. To tell the truth; she herself didn't know when this world had developed gun powder. History was never one of her favorite subjects seeing as though the majority of it had little to no relevance in the present.

"And what would you define as a 'major leap'?" the priest asked.

"Please don't avoid the question." Patchouli ordered him.

"You did so yourself not so long ago." He noted to his earlier question on her social status.

"And stop attempting to change the subject." Patchouli said with a hint of irritation.

When the priest refused to speak; Patchouli took it as a cue to continue her own observations. "Technological advancement is sourced from… people searching for a means or method to make life easier for themselves. That is an incentive to work."

Glancing around at all the wealthy who were oblivious to their conversation. "The educated nobles are for the most part, wealthy and content with their lives. They have little to no inventive to innovate outside of mere curiosity and interest."

"The commoners are almost constantly working to survive. I cannot imagine there is much emphasis placed on education in the working class and patricians focus more on mercantile rather than any sciences." Patchouli noted as she observed the scurrying servants who were carrying jugs and plates.

"You paint a rather poor picture of the noble class milady." The priest observed.

"That was not my intent. Humans are the same no matter how they choose to organize themselves. Everything humans do is based on self-interest… for better or for worse. For the most part; the nobles have simply become too complacent in the system where they are the ones with power." Patchouli sagely said.

"If all commoners were to break out of their system; the nobles will be slow and ill prepared to react." Patchouli said.

The priest lowered his head as he thought over her words. His face was grim as he returned to look at her. "I will have to disagree with you on that all humans are selfish."

"I did not state that all humans were selfish. Rather that all humans acted on self-interest." Patchouli denied.

"I'm afraid I do not see the difference." The priest helplessly admitted.

"Say a man was caught under a cart at night and is bloody all over his body. And a second man was the only one present. Seeing the first man in such a dangerous situation will make the second man feel feelings of distress. To easiest manner to relieve such negative feelings would be to help the first man out of his own distress." The priest seemed to catching on as Patchouli continued with her example.

"While the second man may seem to be selflessly helping the second man, it is truly self-interest in disguise." Patchouli concluded.

"I take back what I said earlier. You have a poor picture of humanity as a whole." The priest noted again.

Patchouli would agree with that statement. As she was a natural Magician Youkai, she was never a human and had never experienced whatever humans experienced.

Besides; this theory of self-interest was popular among humans themselves. The earliest philosopher she could remember sharing similar sentiments was some English human in the 17th century, though she was certain that there was likely even earlier philosophers who coined this but were forgotten in the pages of history.

"Back on topic: I suspect that technology in Halkegenia would vastly improve if social restrictions were relaxed." Patchouli proposed.

"And what makes you assume that commoners will be able to so greatly improve technology? As you implied yourself; the vast majority of them are uneducated and not financially able to stop their work to innovate in an academia." The priest argued.

Patchouli refrained from bringing the history of her own dimensional plane to bear as evidence. Merely mentioning the various examples from her dimensional plane, while they were correct, would give the human priest the impression that she herself was making things up to back up her argument.

"Would you deny that having more people working to innovate would make technology advance all the more faster?"

The priest took a moment to think on this before giving a negative. "No, I will concede that. More people almost always make work go faster."

"But the Founder had made his messages clear. The Nobles are to lead and protect while the commoners will follow and serve. This has worked for humanity for thousands of years." The priest adamantly maintained, falling back into church doctrine.

"And I am sure that the Founder wanted four fifths of his fellow man to be oppressed by the fifth." Patchouli interjected. The priest visibly flinched at her words but didn't respond.

"The accuracy of such messages has a poor track record of maintaining itself against the passage of time. You will find that it is not completely implausible for those in power to subtly change such messages for their purposes." Patchouli said as she gave her observation on the reliability on the messages of messiah type people.

"What you say is mere speculation… and it is without substantial evidence. I myself have the authority to bring you in for heresy for this." The priest threatened without any will behind the threat itself.

"If this is how your church deal with anyone who would challenge it; then it is no surprise that society isn't advancing in the least." Patchouli drove in. "And if I may say; you yourself hesitated."

The priest lowered his head slightly in shame. "It pains me to admit it, but there was a time that I doubted the teachings of the Founder…"

He seemed to regain his composure as he stared back at her. "But I am proud to say; that I have been long reassured that my faith is a just one."

"Of course you have. You would not be arguing with me on such a sensitive topic otherwise." Patchouli sarcastically said.

The priest suddenly shifted and pushed back his seat to leave. The full plate of food forgotten and left on her table.

"Leaving?" Patchouli asked nonchalantly.

"Yes. You have given me much to think about." Without another word the priest walked off, ignoring anyone who might try to start a conversation with him before disappearing into a corridor.

Patchouli took a sip of her cup. Now that she he was gone; she remembered that they hadn't even been introduced yet. No matter. He was just another human whose faith in his religion was probably shaken by her.

* * *

Patchouli braved the cold winds as she awaited the noble lady who was scheduled to pick her up. All around her there were sailors milling about pretending to look busy and guests either waiting for transport like her or boldly venturing into the town itself.

She clutched the rim of her cloak closer to conserve her warmth. Patience, she could wait.

She really missed the warmth and comfort of her library now. Why was she even helping de Gallia anyway? She could run off and the runes will still remain on her head. With her skills; it shouldn't be too hard to survive on her own.

Then again; she was a shut-in and had little social contact with anyone outside of Scarlet Devil Mansion. While her practical magic skills were far superior to anyone she has encountered so far; her ability to mingle with others was less than stellar.

At least she could comfort herself in the knowledge that Koakuma was more a shut-in than she was. She was bad but she wasn't the worst.

"Miss Knowledge?"

Turning she found herself facing a mammoth of a human. He was built like he wrestled bears as a past time. Garbed in the raiment with Gallian colors; it was clear she was likely meant to follow him.

"If you would follow me." The footman said as he turned and marched towards a radiant carriage. Without a word; Patchouli trailed after the big man.

He opened the door to carriage and let Patchouli in before closing the door. He ignored the step and jumped straight into the driver's seat and prepared the horses to depart.

It was a shame he was wearing a helmet. If there was ever a fight, it was likely that he would die a faceless and forgotten death. Such was the fate of most soldiers and guards in a world where magic reigned supreme. They would die as forgotten martyrs.

"Greetings Myoznitnirn. I am Lady Josette de Orleans. I will be assisting you in whatever venture you desire in pursuit of the goal that our king has set you upon." The noble lady seated opposite her said.

Patchouli's eyes widened in surprise when she saw that the noble lady had a striking resemblance to Tabitha. Though the differences were very subtle, de Orleans had a more healthy look to her and was about normal height compared to the short Tabitha.

While her face structure and eyes were the same; she had shaped her teal hair in a in a longer loose fashion compared to the bob cut that Tabitha had.

And she was smiling. The same practiced smile any number of politicians would use, but a smile nevertheless. That itself was a stark contrast to Tabitha.

"Myoznitnirn?" Patchouli inquired. That was term she had not encountered before.

"That is what the runes say is it not? This information is solely from the king so I am uncertain whether this information is false or not." de Orleans said with a slight trace of annoyance in her voice.

"Yes, of course." Patchouli hurriedly confirmed for her. Myoznitnirn, the term resembled no language she had ever encountered. Still it was the name of her runes and she now had a start for her research instead of simply blindly searching and hoping for the best.

The sooner she killed this Wales the better.

They rode the carriage in silence as neither had any things to say to the other. It was when they were stopping that Patchouli finally asked the question that had stuck on her mind when she first saw de Orleans.

"I have to ask. Are you perhaps related to a Tabitha?" Patchouli asked. The resemblance they shared was far too close to be a mere coincidence. Yet it raised the question of why she was Josette de Orleans, an obvious noble name, while Tabitha was simply just that.

"No."de Orleans stated in a way that clearly marked that she didn't want to talk about it. "I don't have a sister anymore."

* * *

**Millet Soup is the best soup.**


	4. Act IV

**I'm not sure if Patchouli was a human or not anymore in canon. But since this is **_**fanfiction**_**, she will be a natural in this story anyway. Not too confident in this chapter.**

* * *

"May I know of your plans as to how you are going to eliminate your target?" de Orleans asked across the dining table.

With the exception of Patchouli, herself, there was no one else in the room. The usual servants that would wait on their mistresses were sent out to wait. Considering the sensitive nature of the topic, it was not an overly cautious move.

While they weren't contemplating regicide, killing the favorite prince was just about as bad.

The Youkai magician could also sense some form of barrier the layered the perimeter of the room. Likely some form of barrier spell to ensure that the servants don't _happen_ to eavesdrop on them.

Patchouli thought over whether she should tell the Gallian that she in fact had no viable plan as of yet. While it may make her appear less capable, she would freely admit that her practical skills, for espionage anyway, were lacking.

As de Orleans was likely an agent of de Gallia, it would not be too incorrect of her to assume that she was familiar with how the more secret and deadly trades in the world.

"I do not have any plans as of yet." Patchouli admitted without shame. Planning a man's assassination, much less a Princes, was not something she had done before in her long life.

"Then may I suggest a course of action?" de Orleans asked in interest.

Patchouli waved for her to go ahead. She had wanted to the human noble to either give her a viable and fool proof plan or inspiration to come up with one on her own anyway.

"Well, Prince Wales is very active in the military and in ensuring the safety of his people. As such he personally commands a warship, the 'Eagle' if I recall, and regularly patrols Albion's skies for pirates." de Orleans said as she cleaned her mouth with a napkin before getting off her chair and retrieving a scroll from a nearby cabinet.

Pulling out the scroll, the human girl revealed a detailed map of Albion with several transcripts neatly jotted on at specific points in red ink.

"His ship generally follows a regular route around the perimeter of Albion. And of course he brings a two other ships from the navy to accompany him." de Orleans continued.

Using her finger, de Orleans drew attention to a long line that circled the entire floating island. Along the line were little checks with a specified number of days that, Patchouli assumed, was the time it took for the patrol to reach the check.

"If his patrol is so small then why has no one taken killed him yet?" Patchouli asked.

"The Prince is well known to be a genius in the aspects of war. No pirate or mercenary would risk their only ships against someone who's known to triumph against greater numbers." de Orleans answered.

"Besides; pirates aren't well known for cooperating with each other." de Orleans nonchalantly waved off as an afterthought

"And when do such patrols take place?" Patchouli asked. It would be ridiculous to ask her to fly around Albion searching for his ship. Much better if she was to follow it from Londonium and when there was sufficient distance, she could begin.

"The next is scheduled in about three weeks." de Orleans obtained from memory.

"Too long, I wish to return to Gallia as soon as possible." Patchouli bluntly stated as she refused to continue discussing a plan which would leave her stuck here for a month.

"Do you have a particular reason for returning to Gallia so fast?" de Orleans asked with interest.

"It is of personal business. You do not need to know." Patchouli coldly responded. The girl was fishing for information and she had no particular need or desire to play the fish.

Nevertheless, she was back at the start. She supposed that if she wanted this over quickly, then she would have to do the deed within the city. The problem that persisted was doing so without having her massacre a fair number of guards and soldiers in the process.

She could endanger the structural integrity of the palace and cause a collapse. Unfortunately that left many variables to chance and it was not impossible for the prince to miraculously survive. Not to mention that she might kill the entire Royal family in the process.

While that was certain to cause instability, it wasn't the same type that de Gallia wanted. He wanted an Albion that was severely weakened from civil war or rebellion. Removing the central government would weaken Albion but not to the same extent as a civil war.

Besides if Halkegenia was anything like feudal Europe, then Royal families had their blood spread all across noble and royal blood lines. It wasn't too farfetched that some powerful noble will claim royal blood and seize power in place of the Tudors.

And this wasn't including the numerous other deaths that would occur. Hundreds likely served as staff and guards within the palace.

She had no interest in massacring hundreds of civilian noncombatants. Such a thing left a bad taste in her mouth.

Regardless, she doubted that de Gallia had intended for her to bring down the entire palace. Though, admittedly, they may be because he possessed no real intelligence on her full capabilities.

Speaking of him, what happened to those structures she was meant to destroy? She couldn't remember him giving any specific instructions or targets for arson.

It did not matter. If he forgot then it cumulates into her having to do less of his dirty work.

"I will need more information on the target." Patchouli requested. Details such as his usual whereabouts, daily schedule, habits, and etcetera would be very useful in helping her develop the best possible strategy.

"I'm afraid that you will have to ask me directly. For security reasons I do not keep written records anywhere outside of Gallia." de Orleans unapologetically said.

Patchouli nodded in understanding. This suggested that she was indeed a spy of some kind. It would be foolish to leave records that could be used as evidence of spying lying around, what she assumed to be, a temporary base of operations. Considering her attitude so far, she was likely a supervisor of some kind rather than a field agent.

"Very well, then what would you suggest I do if I wanted to kill my target within the city." Patchouli asked. She would concede the planning to someone who was more likely qualified for this shady type of work.

"I would suggest you do so either when he is sleeping onboard the docked Eagle or when he is leading a military parade." de Orleans gave out.

The first of the two suggestions given to her appealed more. The second was likely going to be very high profile and attract far too much attention. Military parades were showy spectacles and it was going to be nigh impossible to retain a low profile after she killed Wales. A similar result to her earlier palace destruction scheme may ensue.

The first sounded more adequate for her. She still may have to destroy the ship in its entirety and thus kill the crew inside. And while that number would still be hefty, it was significantly less than if she was to battle in the city streets. Besides, as soldiers, they should be expecting to die at a moment's notice.

"Does Wales sleep on his ship?" Patchouli asked in slight confusion. Why would a prince sleep on a warship instead of returning to rest in the Royal Palace?

"He does as of late. As does all his crew." de Orleans confirmed for her. "There has been a recent schism between him and his family. If I had to guess it's over the recent increase in taxes when the kingdoms already suffering."

So Wales was a prince that took his people's safety seriously and protested his father's attempt to grab hold of more money; all in all he seemed to be a true noblesse. Was de Orleans trying to make her feel bad doing this?

If she was then she was failing. Her picture of the prince so far was flawless. He was a genius, kind and cared for his people; far too perfect to be human. Everyone had a flaw or a vice. His was simply just better hidden.

"That is unfortunate for him." Patchouli commented to herself. It appears that Wales's infortunes was to her benefit.

"I'm assuming that you have set your mind on killing him on the Eagle." de Orleans stated as a fact. "I'm afraid that it will not be as easy as it seems."

"How is that so?" Patchouli asked.

"The Eagle is made up of men that Wales handpicked himself, so I'm assuming their elite. Furthermore even if he did have a quarrel with his father, the King still deployed the Royal Guard to the harbor. They've replaced the normal watch there and hardly let anyone into the port at night." de Orleans informed her of the greatly enhanced defenses set in place.

Patchouli didn't know how competent or skilled the Royal Guards were but she was probably correct in assuming that they were elite troops; elite troops that would almost certainly notice her bumbling about in a halfhearted attempt to sneak in and kill their prince.

In fact; why was she constantly assuming that she had to sneak in and kill the prince? He was supposedly going to be on board a docked flying ship which, if she recalled correctly, had nothing but a long drop to the sea far below.

Destroying the ship by itself would be far simpler. A giant fireball masquerading as an accident in the armory or maybe some unpredictable weather in the form of a powerful tornado would suffice. Even if by some miraculous chance that didn't kill the prince, he would have no platform to stand on and would thus fall to his death.

Still that raised the question of getting close to the ship. There were numerous spells she could utilize to destroy the ship and would take only a moment to cast. But their effective range, or how far she could accurately aim, was limited.

She considered the possibility of approaching the Eagle from underneath but decided against it. For a Kingdom based on a floating island, they would have to be incompetents if they did not have some form of defenses against someone trying to sneak under their island.

Likely they had set up sensors and/or organized various patrols to block infiltrators. Furthermore since this was their capital and likely one of their most important cities, economically and culturally, it would be protected even more rigorously that normal.

Perhaps she could cause a distraction to draw away the guards? She could cause a large explosion to go off near the port. The noise would be rather impossible to ignore and would certainly draw away the Royal guards.

But that wouldn't work because it if what she had heard about the prince was true; he was just as likely to go investigate. What gallant prince, or rather knight in shining armor, wouldn't come to the rescue?

And then she would also have the entire city garrison on her heels. She would be forced into a rather inconvenient circumstance.

It was then she came to a much better revised version of her plan. She doubted that the crews of the docked military ships constantly stayed at full readiness to jump into action.

A large explosion away from dock into open sea, no air, would attract the attention of local guards. They in turn would raise the alarm. In doing so, the gallant Wales would almost certainly come to investigate allowing her to destroy the ship in open air.

She frowned as she came across another problem. This was assuming that the Eagle would be the first ship there; it was entirely possible that other ships would arrive first. And it was also possible that the Eagle would not be deployed at all.

…

It did not matter. She was confident that she could destroy any naval ship that chooses to bring against her. It was possible they wouldn't even see her at all.

They were going to be looking for something far larger than her. If she was to wear a deep blue cloak that bordered on being black; then it was entirely possible that they may not even see her.

If the Eagle didn't come then she would try again some other time or resort to a different strategy. If it did work then she will be back on a ship to Gallia by tomorrow.

Turning to face de Orleans, who now had an expectant look on her face, she asked for a picture of the Eagle. It wouldn't do if she couldn't recognize the target ship.

* * *

Patchouli noted that she had miscalculated the type of response she would receive. For sure there were three ships slowly gliding to her position with one of bearing the Golden Eagle as a figure head.

She was about 95% certain that Prince Wales was likely leading this response.

But while the ships themselves were relatively slow, they possessed another asset that served as a screen for them.

Various riders, knights she presumed from their high quality armor and capes, mounted atop a variety of mythical beasts such as very small dragons, manticores and griffins. They were proving to be more of an annoyance rather than a credible threat to her.

Their attacks were mediocre. It was rather unoriginal and not very fast if she was honest. At best she only had to dodge about four dozen projectiles at once. Hardly anything compared to Danmaku where there were hundreds of projectiles at once.

Not to mention that fireballs and wind spears seemed to be the only thing they were capable of firing at her. It was painfully easy to avoid them.

Still she already had this entire scenario planned out. It would kill Wales and eliminate all opposition, meaning there would be no one pursuing her. All she had to do was wait for the three ships to draw closer and then cast-

She frowned as she heard one of the mounted flying knights shout vulgar insults at her. It appears that he was mistaking her to be male as she was certain that it was physically impossible for her to possess a tiny male reproductive organ.

Of course since she was wearing a very loose black cloak with a long hood drawn over her face; it would be quite easy to assume she was a male assailant. A bit sexist though.

She glided slightly to her left as she casually dodged yet another generic fireball. She couldn't understand why they weren't leading their shots. It was as if they were expecting her not to move and take their attacks head on.

She could deal with them now but any spell that could wipe out the score or so riders surrounding her in an instant may spook off the ships themselves. It wouldn't do if she had to chase the ships back into port.

Patchouli shifted backwards as another dragon rider took a swing at her with his sword wand thing. Resorting to melee combat was not going to help them in the least. In fact it just further limited their range and their chances of defeating her, which was already dramatically low.

It was getting rather troublesome dodging their attacks really. It was also rather annoying since they were turning their frustration at being unable to hit her into rather dry insults. She was absolutely certain that she was a legitimate child and did not in any way resemble a bundle of branches and twigs.

She smirked slightly in amusement when she saw the mounted knights withdrawing to the ships, which were now close enough to prepare broadsides. She couldn't possibly imagine how they were going to hit her with cannons.

The first volley of cannonballs hurtled towards her in a flurry of steel and fire and missed her person completely. It was rather strange that they were even trying to hit such a small target, such as herself, with such an imprecise weapon.

As the crews were likely hurrying to reload, Patchouli prepared her own spell. She was certain that the ten seconds it took for her to prepare her spell, would be faster than the time it took for a cannon crew to reload their cannon.

One of the strongest and most destructive spells she had within her arsenal. There were few things more powerful than a miniature sun.

Granted that it wasn't actually an exact replica of the solar system's star for obvious reasons, it was far hotter than anything that could be created by mortals short of magic.

Of course this won't be the version where she splits its power into hundreds- no thousands of individual bullets. This would be kept together as a single great attack for maximum effectiveness.

_Sun Sign: Royal Flare_

Hoisting both hands into the air, she poured magic into the spell. A miniature sun formed above her hands as it absorbed several small red balls of energy.

Patchouli closed her eyes. She didn't want to be blinded by the light. Even through her eye lids she could see the glimmers of extreme light as the spell began to spread its destructive power.

However while she couldn't see, she could still hear their screams. It was blood curdling as men were incinerated by the power of a fake miniature sun. She couldn't imagine that there would be any human magicians that could have the power to defend themselves from such a spell.

Still the stop of the screams of agony was a good indicator to when they were all dead.

Slowly opening her eyes again she saw or rather didn't see any indicator of the three ships that was facing her.

…

That was extremely anti climatic for a battle between the hero and the villain and she knew beyond doubt that she was the villain. Nevertheless such was reality.

There were no such things as epic battles that lasted from dawn to dusk nor a final duel to determine victors. She had chosen the easiest route to completing her objective and that was what she did.

In all likelihood the Prince was now dead; alongside, perhaps, one hundred other men. Of course only the Prince of Albion would be remembered. For every hero mourned, a thousand martyrs die forgotten.

Of course it would serve her well to confirm this. If he truly was on the ship then it will be the word of Londonium by tomorrow. If not, then she will simply have to try again.

Turning to fly her way back, she suddenly dropped. Her hood flapped back to reveal her head as she fell a few meters before regaining balance.

Patchouli blinked in confusion before her eyes widened with alarm. Her reserves were dangerously low and if she didn't hurry back, she ran the risk of running out of magic and falling to her death.

Hurriedly Patchouli sped along the once again dark skies. Even so her mind was already thinking of several possibilities to her sudden loss of power.

The most prominent so far was that she had temporarily lost control and spent far too much providing the input for Royal Flare. Given that she was feeling fine beforehand, this was likely the case.

If so then she could only imagine how large the Royal Flare must have been.

* * *

**Note: I am under the impression that the vast majority of Touhou has ridiculous amounts of power but only a few select few have any real combat skill in utilizing them. Such is the case here, Patchouli can apparently summon mini suns but I doubt she has any real tactic in using them aside from firing it directly at the enemy. Admittedly I doubt it is the equivalent of a real sun otherwise she would be unstoppable.**

**That being said: the only threats I can think of in FoZ to Patche would be Elves, Void Mages, those Nukes the church has, and maybe a Square class mages.**


	5. Act V

**Just a thought: if Patche considers modern technology magic, wouldn't modern guns count as artifacts? If she can immediately comprehend how to use one then wouldn't she have the same capabilities of Gandalfr to wield the Church's arsenal? Patche using an AK-47 is an amusing image.**

* * *

Patchouli took a sip of her morning tea as she slowly ate her English styled breakfast. Across the table was de Orleans who was sneaking glances at her every now and again.

"So… last night was rather… impressive." de Orleans carefully said.

Patchouli nodded to what she supposed was meant to be praise. In hindsight the Royal Flare was likely, as the humans put it, overkill and even now she was still feeling slightly drained from the spell itself, though far better than she did last night.

There was a moment of silence as de Orleans searched for something to spark a conversation while the Youkai was perfectly fine to stay quiet. There was nothing that Patchouli wanted to talk about currently regardless.

"That wasn't a fireball was it?" de Orleans asked in an inquisitive tone.

"No it wasn't." Patchouli agreed. Royal Flare was a miniature star. A star was not a mere ball of fire. Her world's sun was no exception and she doubted this world's one was any different.

"I thought it was dawn not too long after you left." The noble girl observed. "Was that a small sun?"

"More or less." Patchouli agreed again. Her observation was spot on.

"The entire city probably saw it last night." de Orleans continued.

Patchouli nodded again. She couldn't tell whether that a hyperbole or the truth. Since she didn't know exactly how big she made the Royal Flare herself, she would just have to accept it as it was for now.

After the simultaneous destruction of three ships no one else tried to intercept her way back to Londonium. That was understandable by itself and she was going out of her way to avoid any other trouble.

"Ah yes." Patchouli started. She just remembered that she hadn't confirmed Wales was on the ship yet. She imagined that if he was dead then it would be the main subject of talk across the city.

An espionage agent like de Orleans would surely know if her target was dead. "Was Wales on the ship?"

de Orleans smiled slightly. "The favorite Prince of Albion is no more." She confirmed for the Myoznitnirn.

"That is good." Patchouli gave out. Then there was no reason for her to be here anymore. "Then I will be returning to Gallia promptly."

"I am afraid that is not possible. King James has apparently decided that the killer must still be in the city and thus blocked off any ways of entry and exit." de Orleans said as she broke down Patchouli's prospect for a quick return to Gallia.

"That is inconvenient." Patchouli noted with annoyance.

"Quite." de Orleans agreed. "One cannot leave the city without bringing suspicion upon themselves."

There was yet another silence as they continued to eat. Once again, de Orleans was giving her cautious looks when she thought that she wasn't looking.

Getting rather distracted with all the looks, Patchouli finally asked. "Is there anything you wish to ask?"

To her credit, de Orleans didn't seem the least disturbed that she was noticed. "What are you?"

"A magician." Patchouli answered. This was what concerned her? She supposed that her display of power, far beyond what magicians in this world seem capable of, would be a source of concern.

"You know what I mean." de Orleans stated like she expected Patchouli to know what she means.

"I'm afraid I don't" Patchouli said. She was not all that interested in looking underneath face value at the moment. Entertaining whatever the human girl was thinking was acceptable but delving into complex talks was something she had no taste for as of yet.

"You're not human." de Orleans noted aloud, coming to the same conclusion as de Gallia had.

Patchouli did not say anything in return. She could sense that this was going to be one of those moments where a noble wanted to have a small monologue to make it more dramatic. Remi did it quite a lot as well.

"What you did was not human magic. And you're no Elf as well. I doubt even they can create small suns at will. So I ask again; what are you?"

"A magician." She was telling the truth too. Magicians were a species of Youkai and arguably the most versatile, being able to analyze, replicate and improve upon discovered magic from others while preserving the original.

There were several other nuances involved but teaching them all to de Orleans was pointless and would be a waste of time for the both of them. In all likelihood she was going to be the only Magician she encountered and detailed knowledge was not necessary.

"A subspecies of Youkai or simply a human who practices magic." Patchouli elaborated when she saw that de Orleans was preparing to say something again.

"And a Youkai is a term applied to any being associated with the supernatural." She added to head off the next predicted question.

"So you're a… Yo-kai?" de Orleans asked for confirmation.

"Correct... Are you afraid?" Patchouli asked in slight amusement at her skew pronunciation. The unknown and incomprehensible has always been a great fear for humanity.

"And why would I not be afraid of a being that can conjure small suns?" de Orleans sarcastically answered not sounding afraid in the least despite her answer.

"Do not worry. I doubt I would be able to consecutively utilize such a spell at any rate." Patchouli conceded her lack of magic of use large numbers of Royal Flares.

"That is small comfort. The knowledge that there is another species which far outclass humans is not comforting in the least" de Orleans admitted.

"You do not know the half of it. You will find that I am not even considered a threat to some other Youaki." Patchouli said as she recalled some of the more powerful Youkai she was aware of. Some of them were almost literally unstoppable. "But I think you underestimate humans a bit."

"A race where summoning suns isn't all that impressive. The might of a united Halkegenia couldn't stand against something like that." surmised de Orleans

"You will find the humans will stand a chance. When paired against a foe far higher than them, humans have an annoying tendency to build a mountain of corpses to reach their foe." Patchouli gave out from past experience.

Indeed. Humans have proven long before and time and again that they would kill their own kind if the need was great enough.

de Orleans didn't respond as she thought over this. The knowledge that humans would die en mass to defeat their foes wasn't very comforting either.

Patchouli put down her eating utensils as she finished her meal. What was she to do now?

The whims of the King meant that she couldn't really leave Londonium for an unknown period of time. Spending days kept in doors with no activity was wasteful.

…

Myoznitnirn. That was what de Orleans had called the name of her familiar runes. And she had no idea what it was or meant. This would be a good as a start as any.

"I have something to request." Patchouli said.

"Ask away." de Orleans said as she gestured for her guest to continue.

"I desire any tomes relating to magic, especially relating to familiars." Patchouli requested.

de Orleans nodded to her request, no doubt understanding or suspecting why she wanted to know. De Gallia was not very good at sharing information.

"I do not have many here myself but what I do have will be open to you." de Orleans promised. "Is there anything else?"

Patchouli thought over it. Was there anything else she needed? Yes there was.

"Some quality tea and small snacks would be appreciated."

* * *

It appears that de Orleans knew exactly what she had wanted, passing over the same book that she had used to discover Myoznitnirn. A mere copy of the delicate and rare original it may be, but the contents were the same and thus had the same worth to Patchouli.

Said book was the "Familiars of the Founder Brimir" and Patchouli had found the section she needed amongst all the wasted pages spent in glorifying what the Founder did with his four familiars.

Using a mirror, Patchouli confirmed that the runes shown in the book did indeed match the ones edged onto her forehead. If this was not evidence to her being Myoznitnirn, then what was?

The title attached to Myoznitnirn was of interest to her. 'Mind of God'. Such a grand name suggested a deep intelligence and sagely wisdom comparable to a God. Unfortunately, her experience with Gods in Gensokyo left her with a rather… disappointing view of their intelligence.

It wasn't that she doubted their intelligence, but their personality quirks often lampshades any sign of higher intelligence beyond mortal beings. More often than not, they were not any different to humans and Youkai in behavior.

With the exception of the Dragon. But she had never encountered the God that could create and destroy Gensokyo with ease nor had she known anyone to have met him. She suspected that the Gap Youkai knew where he was though; she always seems to know the answers.

Reading through the section, her interest was piqued by the abilities that the Mind of God apparently possessed. In summary, Myoznitnirn was supposedly able to understand and be able to utilize magical artifacts with a mere touch and was capable of nearly any magical feat.

She was undecided on the first but she was certain that the second was not as useful as it sounded.

While it may suggest that the Mind of God would be capable of performing any and all spells, said Mind of God would still be limited to spells and incantations they were familiar with. If someone with no knowledge on performing magic was summoned then these runes would have been of little assistance to them.

And the limitation of such a power was not specified in the least. The entire passage never went into exact detail on how the Myoznitnirn could produce nearly any magical feats aside from stating that they could.

There certainly was not an infinite reserve of magic that she could draw upon. She certainly could not do so last night; unless there was some mechanism that she did not know how to trigger. And she certainly did not suddenly become aware of a multitude of new spells either.

If she was suddenly capable of any magic then she would have used some power like Yukari Yakumo's and have left this place long ago. Travel would become so much easier when you could bend reality at will.

The first was far more intriguing. Instantly having complete comprehension of artifacts would be hugely beneficial to her for research reasons. Outside of that, she had no practical use for such ability. Magical artifacts were, in general, too valuable to utilize in general situations.

So far the runes did nothing more than improve her health and increase her own personal magic, but not overwhelmingly so. So nothing really changed with her enlightenment of Myoznitnirn.

Her long range goal to replicate the healing part of the runes was still the same. It just now meant that most of the powers associated with the runes were worthless to her.

Still this tidbit about the Mind of God did raise questions. The four familiars of their so called Founder were all associated and centered on his element which was the void. As Myoznitnirn she was also applicably a familiar of the void. By this then Joseph de Gallia must be a magician who could use the void.

…

That did not really matter in the least. But it did mean she could now correctly assume that the Church was the entity that de Gallia was hiding his abilities from. She did not know for certain that the practice of void magic was heresy or not but given the fanatical natures of feudal religions, she could only guess.

She could also suppose that being a familiar of the void she could also be damned to hell for it. She would be less than impressed with being stuck in Makai. She had no intention of being dragged into the shenanigans that the local Goddess involved herself in.

It was a few shaky knocks on her door which suddenly drew her attention. Not bothering to vacate her seat for something so minor, Patchouli used a burst of magic to pull open the door.

As this was a backwards dimensional planes, they lacked even door knobs to their rooms. To ensure that doors were not constantly swinging, the doors were made of much heavier materials and required much more active strength to open.

A surprised de Orleans stumbled through the door, her hands prepared to knock on something no longer there. She caught her fall with her second step through the door and straightened herself before speaking.

"Can I help you?" she asked the girl who had regained her composure in an instant.

"Yes, I've received a message from the King." de Orleans responded as she slipped a letter out of her pocket.

"How exactly did he pass along a message when the city is in lockdown?" Patchouli skeptically asked. If messages could be passed along, then Patchouli intended to ask if de Orleans could smuggle her out of this city.

"We have our ways." de Orleans said the old cliché to explain things.

"How?" she insisted.

"Magic." de Orleans gave with yet another clichéd answer.

…

Patchouli was not amused with the answer. It must have shown on her face because de Orleans quickly changed her tactics.

"Ah, forgive my poor attempt at humor. This is orders to be given to you following your killing of the Prince." de Orleans nervously added.

"And what are these orders?" Patchouli wearily asked as she extended a hand out to receive the letter.

de Orleans gingerly handed the envelope to Patchouli. Opening it, Patchouli read the contents.

Hmm… this was an oversight she could not believe she had not noticed yet. The runes were completely foreign to her and logically she should not be able to comprehend them. And yet she was having minimal problems with reading several tomes and this note despite not knowing how to read the language.

A matter that would have to be thought over at another time.

The contents of the message seemed to reflect de Gallia's manner of talking when he was describing the Prince of Albion. It was flowery and seemed like it would belong in a Shakespearian play.

Of course de Gallia seemed to take his time in making sure that the letter was filled with useless clutter that hid the real message. From the gist of it; it appears that de Gallia wanted her to relocate to Tristain and kill more important figures.

This time it was two, a certain Cardinal Mazarin and Queen Marianne. It appears that she would in fact have to commit regicide this time.

de Gallia even went into detail as to why they needed to be eliminated. Why he would do so was beyond her but it did serve for some random trivia.

Queen Marianne was the current head of state for the Kingdom of Tristain since her husband's death. While competent she stopped being an effective ruler since the King of Tristian's death. de Gallia went into great detail of how such a tragic loss resulted in the loss of will for the fair maiden of Tristain's Royal Family.

Despite this, de Gallia ranted on about how if Tristain was placed under enough pressure; she would be able to lead somewhat effectively. Something that de Gallia apparently did not want to happen.

Cardinal Mazarin was a stabilizing force in the kingdom and the real leader of Tristain. His political skills were essential in holding back the opportunist nobles who wanted to take advantage of a weakened monarchy.

According to de Gallia, he was grooming the next in line for leadership and his loss would be politically crippling for Tristain.

…

"No." Patchouli simply stated. Murmuring a quick spell, the note and envelopes went up in flames in her hands.

She had a lead into her runes and there were certain to be more specialized tomes available to her in the capital city of her patron. She did not want to play pet assassin right now.

"Pardon?" de Orleans asked, not confused with her actions in the least.

"I have just committed the high profile murder of a prince. I require time to relieve some of the accumulated stress." Patchouli explained. The excuse flowed easily out of her.

She had seen and heard the excuse passed around by the fairy maids in Scarlet Devil Mansion enough times. And as long as they did not overplay it, Remi seemed to not mind.

"You do not seem under stress." de Orleans pointed out as she maneuvered towards the door. Likely to draft some report back to her master about her response.

"People have different means of dealing with stress." Patchouli countered. And de Gallia had agreed that she could refuse any mission he tried to lay on her within reason.

Well her reasoning was that she was currently occupied with another matter and needed to release pent up stress. Studying and researching vague topics while having an exquisite cup of tea were always a sure means for her to relax.

And it was not as if he would force her to comply. There were ultimately many out in this world that would be more than willing to employ someone with her skills for money. He needed her far more than she needed him.

* * *

**Millet Soup will always give you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.**


	6. Act VI

**Don't really like this chapter but needed something in between. Also trying to think of a way to add more FoZ cast in without making it too unfeasible. So far most of them end with Saito dying and Louise being dragged to Joseph.**

* * *

It was back in the Palace of the city Versailles that Patchouli met her master again. Within his study office, of which he apparently only uses to engage in conversation with her, he was praising her for the 'spectacular show' she performed outside Londonium's port.

"I had no inkling that you were capable of such power." de Gallia lavished over how she destroyed the prince's squadron.

Patchouli could only nod as she kept her head down as she read her book. It was called 'The Five Elements' and seemed to be guide to this world's magic system for the unenlightened.

De Gallia continued talking regardless; the fact that she barely paying attention to him did not seem to bother the King of Gallia in the least.

She slowly tuned him out as she read over the rather limited information over the void element. She was beginning to suspect that textbooks had a natural aversion to actually explaining what the void element was.

Just as with the 'Familiars of the Founder Brimir', this book placed more emphasis on what the Brimir did with this void magic rather than explaining to the reader what it was besides from being the sacred magic that their Founder used.

"…would be appreciated." She heard de Gallia finish in a more serious tone to the flamboyant one he was using prior.

"Pardon?" Patchouli said as she lifted her head from her book. She would rather not be unwittingly dragged into agreement on something she failed to hear.

"An explanation of your abilities would be appreciated." de Gallia repeated for her. "It will allow me to better gauge what tasks would be suitable."

Patchouli thought over the request. A brief description of her abilities was not especially dangerous or compromising. There was not much outside elemental manipulation that she could lay claim to regardless.

She was skilled in barriers and seals; a byproduct of seeking to protect her books from being compromised. There were a few miscellaneous spells that she was aware of but did not use on a regular basis. And then there was her laser, which was shamefully stolen from her by the rat.

Still… this was a tad late for something that should have been discussed before she had left for Albion.

…

"I would be, by your standards, a heptagon magician." Patchouli briefly said.

"Heptagon?" de Gallia asked in confusion.

"Controlling seven elements makes me a heptagon, does it not?" she rhetorically asked.

"Yes it does. Though I must ask what elements you utilize." de Gallia inquired as he leaned against a polished stone wall.

"Earth, Fire, Metal, Moon, Sun, Water and Wind." Patchouli quickly listed.

de Gallia's raised an eyebrow in confusion to the elements she used. As this world's magic was far more limited than her one; that was not an unreasonable response.

Seeing his confusion, Patchouli offered to put it in more simple terms. "I am likely stronger than any or most magicians in this world."

She could not say with utmost confidence that she may be the strongest magician in this world. There had been little chance to encounter any masters of the arcane arts of this world.

But from what she had seen of the common magicians so far, she had little doubt that she was beyond the majority of humans; although she did have a century over their few decades of experience supporting her.

"And I suppose that the spell you used in Albion was fire." de Gallia said as he referenced the Royal Flare she used on Wales.

"Royal Flare is more akin to a sun rather than a simple ball of fire." Patchouli explained for him.

"That is reassuring." de Gallia said with some confidence as he understood the message.

"Also I must apologize that I didn't think of the stress you must be under." He added in a worried tone. "Commiting a slaughter of such scale is no simple thing to deal with."

Patchouli looked at de Gallia suspiciously, looking for any sign of deceit. The man could not possibly have actually believed her excuse, right?

Yet she could not find any lie in him. This meant he was actually apologetic over her, supposed, stress build up, or he was an amazing actor. Considering she already knew the latter as a fact, he was a superb actor.

"No, that is quite alright." Patchouli awkwardly reassured, playing along with his act. "Everyone has a flaw."

de Gallia's impersonated mood seemed to dissipate with her final words. Instead it was now more solemn, more reflective.

"And what if I told you, I know someone that was perfect." de Gallia asked quietly as he slowly paced around the table.

Patchouli's answer was instant. "There is no such thing as a perfect human being." And no perfect Youkai either.

"My brother was called otherwise." de Gallai softly objected.

"It is impossible to be perfect. The word itself is subjective and as a rule, nothing can be perfect, the world will not allow it." Patchouli explained, feeling like she had already had a similar conversation to this one.

Everything was flawed. Nothing was perfect. A perfect being was impossible because everything had a flaw. That did not mean that one should not or could not strive for perfection. That was what made the great people.

Even that man would occasionally appear at the various parties of Gensokyo; sampling the many fine beverages of the wonderland to escape reality before returning to practice his art.

"Yet he was able to happily congratulate me, the weaker and less skilled one on becoming the crown prince. I know he wanted the crown himself. So how was he able to be happy for me?" de Gallia demanded a bit louder.

Patchouli was becoming a bit worried now. It was clear this was a personal experience from his past and it seemed that he wanted answers from her.

She knew nothing of this brother of his but from how he kept using past tense in referencing him, he was likely dead. He wanted the crown but was happy enough to jovially pass it along to de Gallia. If it was not for de Gallia's current behavior she would have thought they had a friendly rivalry.

"If he was as good as an actor as you, then he may have been faking it. That is what politicians do is it not? Lie with a straight face." Patchouli lamely answered.

That was likely not the answer he was looking for however but he did seem to give up his search for an answer to his brother's perfectness. A bit too easily considering that this was the first time she saw him give out what she would consider true emotion.

"No he was not lying. He was genuinely happy for me." de Gallia insisted, the earlier fervor dying out.

Patchouli shrugged as de Gallia calmed down. "If that is what you choose to believe, then so be it. I cannot control minds."

She took a cursory look around for something to change the subject. She disliked getting involved in others personal issues. Interference from outsiders tended to end badly except in certain circumstances.. "Where did my watchdog go?"

She had noticed that de Orleans expressionless doppelganger was missing from her presence for quite some time now, but took no notice of it. She may have been sent somewhere else or dismissed, she did not know.

But it will serve now in switching away from such a personal subject for now.

de Gallia waved dismissively at the question, his mood somehow changed yet again. "I sent her to Tristian. Still don't know who their void user is."

"Void user?" Patchouli inquired; a magician capable of using the same magic of their Founder? de Gallia was certain to be one then. How else could he summon Myoznitnirn?

"You don't know?" de Gallia asked in slight surprise. "Josette said that you were studying void magic. I would have thought you would have known by now."

"On what did you base that assumption?" Patchouli asked. He barely knew her and hardly interacted with her during her time in his palace. And what little time he did spend with her would not have been enough for him to form a portrait of her traits.

"You seem sharp." He answered lamely.

"Of course you did." She replied. He was making a baseless assumption or trying to praise her. It did not really matter.

"Anyhow; I am sure you're aware of our great Founder Brimir and all the astounding things he did to craft our society as we know it." Seeing Patchouli nod at the over glorified mention of his religion's center head, he continued. "Well, I'm almost certain that those of his line can replicate his feats."

"Of course, there are some among the Church who would feel… slighted if one was to openly use void magic. It would be an affront to the sacredness of their Founder or something." The Gallian King waved off the threat of the church dismissively.

"Those with Void magic are not too difficult to find. For reasons unknown even to myself, possessing the void prevents you from utilizing magic from the other four elements." de Gallia continued.

"And how is it that you have kept your lack of conventional magic hidden?" she asked. Would no one really notice that their monarch was incapable of the same basic magic that every other noble house was capable of?

"Bah." de Gallia spat out. "They all think I'm an idiot already. It's not too far a stretch for me to also be incredibly incompetent with magic."

"And I suppose that all the other kings and queens are also supposedly imbeciles with magic." Patchouli skeptically said. She did not know what type of persona that de Gallia put out to the public but she very much doubted that all the other monarchs in Halkegenia would be capable of pretending to be stupid and still remain in power.

"No, no. None of the others are void users." de Gallia stated as a fact.

Assuming that others would mean his peers among the heads of states of Halkegenia, it meant that the selection of those who can practice void magic was not limited to solely the head of the royal families, namely the eldest.

That would still not discount the fact that it would be incredibly difficult for someone to hide their lack of magic in this world of the elites where magic was dominant. But then, the world was a big place.

It would explain how de Gallia had not as of yet discovered who this Tristainian void practitioner is. She supposed that nobles intermarried for political reasons and there was no telling how many high ranking nobles had their Founder Brimir as a blood ancestor.

Still, while interesting, it had little bearing on her focus on her runes.

But of course she could not simply mention that she was interested in replicating her runes by herself and without him. And she could obviously also not mention that she intended to leave as soon as she was done.

Doing either would likely result in de Gallia either isolating her or attempt to find some means to keep her grounded on this world. Not to mention that he could find some way to limit her. Though she doubted that he would go as far to cause a fire accident in his own capitals library to stop her

She had thought there would be something interesting about the term 'void user' and that it was an official and universal but so far it appeared to be merely the name that de Gallia had dubbed anyone who used the void.

Her ears tuned out de Gallia again as she refocused on her own book; the one that was proving to be useless like the majority of books in this world.

It should not be a surprise to her really. This was an era where literature and education was rarely needed and usually reserved for the rich.

As a result, it appears that the books themselves seemed to suffer.

…

Myoznitnirn was capable of understanding artifacts instantly with a mere touch were they not?

"Do you perchance have a magical artifact of any kind?" Patchouli asked, interrupting de Gallia going on about the Romalian Pope and how annoying and feminine he looked.

She would like to test this ability out. It would be a novel experience if nothing else.

The human king stopped his rant to look at her mischievously. For a grown middle age man to have a face like that resembled a little child preparing to play a prank was disturbing.

"None on hand, but I can get some for you to test out your Myoznitnirn powers." de Gallia said, miraculously guessing her intent correctly.

Patchouli frowned again. While it was good that he could retrieve an artifact for her it was discomforting to know that he knew what her runes meant but did not deign it necessary to inform her.

"You need not worry; I can have one, from the Church itself, in a years' time." de Gallia proudly claimed, misinterpreting her impression on his words.

A years' time. 365 days by her calendar but different here. If she recalled there were exactly 32 days in a month but retained the same 12 month calendar. That meant it would approximately be a 384 day wait.

Not too bad for a Youkai but still a bit too long for her tastes. In all likelihood she would have long forgotten about this by then.

"The Church?" Patchouli queried in confusion. Well, it was given that a church which spanned across several countries would have a repository that contained their most holy of relics and artifacts.

Considering the nature of the church, she suspected that they kept some ridiculous object that belonged to their Founder and placed it among their holiest of objects.

She would not be surprised even if seemingly ordinary objects possessed great power from the all the faith that was placed in their Founder for six millennia. Humans could do rather strange and powerful things with faith alone as long as there were enough of them.

"Of course. They try to keep it a secret but they're not ruthless enough to keep their secrets from my own agents." de Gallia stated as if she knew what type of secret backroom stabbing he did with the Church.

"While the larger artifacts are far beyond even my reach, some of the smaller samples are not." de Gallia confided with her.

Patchouli simply nodded. If it will come then it will come. She will await it patiently or forget about it when something more important pops up.

She had plenty of time.

* * *

**I'll stop mentioning Millet Soup so much. It just helps fix my view of Touhou after reading Asastuki Dou doujins. The stuff he writes is **_dark_.


	7. Act VII

**Don't want to use a time skip thing, so trying to think of chapters that have a point and placing what I think is blatantly obvious foreshadowing. Hopefully reach canon in a chapter or two. Canon being Louise summoning Saito, cause I'm more likely than not to change events in canon. I also wonder if anyone ever notices all those obscure references I make. Even made one about ZUN last chapter I think.**

* * *

"It's an honor to work with you again, Miss Knowledge." de Orleans said with a polite bow as she entered the room.

"A spying cat is hardly a worthwhile duty." Patchouli replied. de Orleans could not even qualify as a watchdog unlike the quiet Tabitha. Being a watchdog assumes that they possessed at least some measure of ability to stop their mark.

She had no idea that de Orleans had returned from Albion, nor did she know how she went from spy to 'advisor' for Gallia.

de Gallia was, as usual, cryptic with his reasoning and refrained from directly informing her as to why de Orleans was here. He had let her know only that she was meant to be her new assistant to replace Tabitha.

His comment that they were essentially the same and she would not know the difference was incorrect. Appearance wise, they were almost identical with the exception of how they stylized their hair and clothes.

But while Tabitha was stoic silent type, usually the most dangerous, de Orleans was more talkative and seemed to enjoy baiting her to talk about something which was vaguely philosophical.

In fact she had been engaging in philosophical subjects quite often here. In hindsight most of it was also on human nature, a deep subject that she had based her topics and arguments on from view from past human philosophers.

After all, humans know humans best.

"Is there something that I can assist you with?" de Orleans said expectantly as she awaited something to do.

Patchouli was rather unsure of why the human girl was eager to help her. She would have thought the role of servant or housemaid would not be appealing to the pampered nobles.

"No." Patchouli honestly replied. There was nothing that she needed. The books that she had Tabitha retrieve prior her Albion trip were thankfully still here and she was content with them as of now.

Nodding, de Orleans stationed herself beside the door, her eyes closed as she presumably waited patiently.

Patchouli raised an eyebrow at the move. Did the girl know that she would not have explicitly minded if she had taken a seat? Standing for extended periods of time was exhausting.

She pondered this for a moment before deciding that she was digressing. She wanted to finish this experiment by the end of today.

The fact that she had run out of magic in Albion led her to question certain aspects of the runes.

When she had created the titanic fireball in the parterres of the Palace of Versailles, she had noted no visible strain. The spirits here were rather accommodating of her requests and the input she was placing into the spells was no small amount.

Conversely, in Albion the spirits were slightly smaller in number but equally willing to assist her with her spells. While the input for a Royal Flare was significantly higher than a mere fireball, albeit a rather large one, it had left her exhausted and barely able to fly herself to safety.

While there were a myriad of things that she could draw from this, she had chosen the one that was the easiest to test.

Her theory was that the 'boosted magic' was linked to de Gallia and that he passed magic along to her. Of course that bond would naturally be stronger the closer in proximity they were.

By all accounts she should have thought of this earlier but she did not think that he could possibly have more magic than her, a magician; the species of Youkai that focused on magic.

Through the revelation of void magic, it was now viable. Void was associated with nothingness and failed contracts but it could also be linked to a number of other associations that hinted at unlimited power.

Of course this was assuming that the 'void' part of the name actually had some real meaning and was not simply an interesting name that their Founder had decided to slap onto his unique form of magic. She could only hope that the man was above such a childish manner of naming.

But she was digressing again.

Now, to test this she would have to perform something extraordinarily large and see how it would affect her and de Gallia. Since an over the top ball of fire had already proven not sufficient, she was preparing something far more difficult and widespread.

The last time that she had used this spell was when Flandre had tried to leave the house. For the sake of all things existing in Gensokyo, she had to step in from unleashing a bloodthirsty Flandre. She supposed that sleeping for a few decades and not drinking any blood for that period would cause that.

Again, in hindsight; Remi and her should have prepared some sort of failsafe in case such an event happened. Or at least get a fairy maid to guard her door so that her screams of pain and fear could alert the more able members of the household. Or maybe get the guard dog of Scarlet Devil Mansion to buy some time for everyone else.

Regardless, she could not change them now and Flandre was less aggressive when she had left and had receded into a more childlike state now that she was receiving her proper blood intake.

And here she was digressing again. Patchouli stared into her empty hands. Perhaps she had not consumed had enough tea today to sufficiently sharpen her mind. "Some tea would be appreciated."

She had always preferred tea over the sake and wine that everyone else in Gensokyo liked to consume in excess. Why would she drink a beverage that will give her a detrimental effect over her mental state over a calm cup of tea which could boost her failing endurance?

"I will get straight to it." de Orleans responded instantly. She was out the door before Patchouli could say anything else and the Youkai could hear her footsteps echoing across the hallway before it finally faded away.

Patchouli shrugged at the uncharacteristic move. She was a bit too eager in leaving her by herself and unlike Tabitha, she was certain that de Orleans was not waiting outside. But whatever she was plotting, or not plotting for that matter, did not concern her.

She could go around blackmailing every other noble's secret and she would likely not blink an eye, though if she was to do something to de Gallia, it would be a bit more inconvenient for her. She would rather he not die so soon.

Still, what she planned might end up killing him if taken to extreme, or at least drain him for days. Hopefully it would not come to that.

Finishing the final details of her work, she lifted up the self-made magic scroll to inspect it for flaws. As usual for her work, it was of extremely high quality.

While she could cast spells without it, it was easier to use a scroll for something as complicated as manipulating the weather. This was not as simple as a spell card which was comprised of mostly raw power.

This piece of work took her a large extended period to create and cleanse it of all possible mistakes and she was certain that it was going to work. It would be just like that rainstorm that she used in the Scarlet Devil Incident but on a far wider and larger scale.

Such a grand spell was certain to take enormous amounts of magic. And with this she would test the limits to the boost in magic she may or may not receive from de Gallia.

Of course she would start small at first. If it did not affect her then she would progressively make the storm larger until either her or de Gallia is unable to continue.

This was a completely out of proportion test and there were likely innumerable other experiments that were much safer and did not involve the large scale manipulation of the forces of nature, and also did not run the risk of death.

But for sake of discovery, one must take risks. And this was the most extravagant way to show off her power and intimidate the small de Gallia that had been bothering her for months on end. Hopefully that will keep her quiet and stop her from her continued attempts to uncover the secret affair that she was supposedly having with her father.

Thought to be fair, her sudden appearance and the well-known fact she spends most of her days in his office would lead to such baseless rumors. She suspected that it was simply the servants and nobles in the palace refraining from talking about it because it was not politically correct to point out such a thing.

As if she would ever depreciate herself to being a lover to a man that was already married and had a daughter. Such an act was despicable abuse of trust and cheating in general was not well viewed by her.

And it was impossible that she would ever harbor feelings for someone who was questionably mentally unstable. Though of course, his actions could all be part of some grand scheme she could not even perceive but for the most part it appeared to be pointless warmongering.

His recent behavior in regards to his not so secret support for the Reconquista movement made no sense in the least, considering that Reconquista was quite spoken about overthrowing the monarchies and letting the common people rule themselves. This of course included the Kingdom of Gallia.

And unlike the majority of other rebellions that apparently happens every now and then in Halkegenia, this rebellion was also supported by a large number of minor nobles who would be unable to rise up due to their birth.

That and their solution to enemy mages were crude and simple but have been proven effective even by her world's history. It was a given that a trained magician would be capable of devastating entire ranks of troops by themselves unless there was an opposing magician to stop them.

Given the comparisons between Halkegenia and her Earth, and the fact that they were still humans either way; it was not out of the world for someone in Reconquista to finally discover that massed firepower was very effective.

…

She wondered how they invented the concept of guns anyhow. There did not appear to be some China equivalent to plagiarize the idea of weaponizing gunpowder. Likely there was someone who just came up with the same idea at some point.

The weakness of the nobles was apparent and the news of Reconquista's first major victory was soon spread abroad. de Gallia wasted no time in informing her as to how proud he was of the rebellion he started.

Likely influenced by her random observations of Halkegnian life and how flawed it could be, de Gallia had gushed out his own theory on why the Albionese magicians were failing.

Muting out all the superfluous details of how they were weak of heart and lacked motivation, which she doubted considering failure meant death for them and their families, his argument cumulated in the fact that magicians of this world lacked sufficient training in defensive magic.

Throughout all four tiers of magic they possessed, for all elements, the focus was always on offensive and support spells. Indeed, according to de Gallia, the vast majority of their meagre defensive spells were improvised versions of other miscellaneous spells; such as making a barrier of rocks with their 'Spirits of Earth' spell.

Personally she thought his argument was rather flawed. The best defense has been said to be offence. And if the nobles really were that undefended then why were they not dropping like fairies to arrows and the like.

And in all cases, de Gallia would not be a good reference when it came to their style of magic by his own admission. He was a Void user and as such could no-

And she was digressing again. Patchouli let out an empty sigh as she looked to the still closed door of the room. Either time was passing slower in her thoughts than she would have imagined or de Orleans was taking an ungodly amount of time in preparing tea.

All the girl had to do was get some maid to prepare it for her and then bring it back if she really insisted on playing servant. She would have thought that someone of her intelligence would be able to manage that.

Speak of the devil and it shall come. Now if only it worked for a certain scarlet one.

de Orleans uneasily open the heavy oak door while unsteadily balancing a tray consisting of two cups and a teapot. She carefully placed them onto the table and stepped back.

"I apologize for taking so long." She said as she took her place back by the door.

An explanation would have been nice for the apology. But at the very least she got the tea in. Patchouli thought as she poured two cups and took one.

As she took a first sip, she frowned as the taste greeted her lips. It was bad, even by the standards of the subpar tea that this world makes.

"Did you make this personally." She asked de Orleans without any ill intent.

"Yes, it was my first time." de Orleans said as if it was something to be proud of. Well that did explain why the tea was bad, it was made by an amateur and presented to someone with very high standards.

"Ah, that explains why it was terrible." Patchouli bluntly stated. She would not lie; the tea was simply not up to the same standard as the tea from the Gallian servants and certainly not from Koakuma. She, herself could make better tea than this.

"…That was very forthcoming. I will try to do so better next time." a disappointed de Orleans said after a moment.

"Please leave it to the servants trained to perform such tasks. I do not know your purpose in trying to curry my favor but there are better methods to obtain it." Patchouli advised.

That was the only plausible reason that she could think of for de Orleans to make tea for her personally. She supposed that it was intended to impress her with the quality of hard work she had put in.

But all she really received was overdue tea and not a very good one at that.

Reasons why de Orleans would want her to look favorably upon her? She did not have the slightest idea. Politics were something she had previously only observed only from a distance and she had never been a political object before.

"…Very well." de Orleans replied after a pause.

Patchouli nodded as she looked back to her work.

Again speak of devil and she shall come. And this time it was true.

As the more annoying of the de Gallias' unceremoniously barged into the room, Patchouli considered switching rooms from now on.

"So the rat's here too now?" the princess sneered as she blatantly snatched the other filled tea cup from the tray.

By rat Patchouli assumed that the princess was referring to de Orleans since she was already designated with 'pig'.

Taking a deep drink of it, the princess spat it all out onto the floor in disgust. "So this was you made in the kitchen? That was pathetic."

Patchouli wondered if the princess was intentionally making herself as rude as possible to make people hate and dislike her. It was possible that her natural mood was like this which, in this case, would only indicate that the older de Gallia was a terrible father and her mother did not seem to care the least.

In fact she had never encountered the Queen of Gallia nor heard of her since her stay. If she was anything like her daughter then she would prefer it that way.

There was a silence as de Orleans adopted the same tactic that Patchouli used against the girl without causing great offence to someone: ignoring her.

Seeing that she was not going to get a response, de Gallia tried to fire more guns. "The doll is coming back soon. And she brought a friend too."

If there was some hidden malicious meaning in that message then Patchouli did not pick up on it. But de Orleans clearly did, as she visibly flinched at her words but did not otherwise react.

"She'll probably want to visit the Duchess again. Oh but she can't since she's no longer family. I wonder who's fault that was?" the princess said sarcastically as she keenly watched de Orleans for some reaction.

This time de Orleans was visibly trembling at whatever insults that were being subtly passed along. Being out of context, Patchouli had no idea what was going on but she could guess it was related to all the familial issues this kingdom's royal family seemed to share.

"Is there anything you wish, or are you just here to annoy me as usual?" Patchouli interjected. Beating down a downed dog that could not fight back was unappealing to her.

"Yeah, why did my father get you to kill Wales instead of my Knights?" she instantly demanded as she rounded on the one she calls 'pig'.

Patchouli shrugged. That was actually a very good question. Why send someone who you knew nothing of to kill a prince instead of sending the very people who were trained for such things.

"Ask your father." She answered. "I do not presume to understand whatever madness goes on his mind."

de Gallia faltered at the suggestion to ask her father. "My father is too busy for such minor matters."

"Of course he is. Too busy to answer a simple question from his daughter but has enough time to banter with me." Patchouli noted much to de Gallia's chagrin.

"Shut up! My father loves me and he placed me in charge of the Knights of Northern Parterre so he's clearly trusts me!" de Gallia defended herself as per her easily provoked self.

Ah, the Knights of Northern Parterre, the secretive knighthood that never existed; just like how there was not a northern parterre in the palace.

"Perhaps he placed you as the leader of a secretive order so that he could make you less public and thus less shameful for him to have a daughter like you." she retorted in return. This was childish and unbecoming but de Gallia was really dislikable and it was rather amusing to play her.

"In fact why are you here instead of managing these knights of yours?" she continued before de Gallia could come back with a response.

"Or is all you do read instructions that were baby fed to you and do nothing more than read them out." She said with a small smirk.

de Gallia was tearing slightly meaning that at least some of her words bore some truth. It was really driven in when she saw that de Orleans was struggling to rein in her own satisfied smile.

Patchouli ignored the girl as she silently withdrew. If she cared more, then she might have felt that she had acted a tad too harshly. She was not the least shamed that she was not.

…

What was she doing again?

…

Right, cause a big storm. She looked at the stack of papers on her table. She had might as well perform the spell now and find de Gallia.

"Do you want to know what her highness meant?" de Orleans asked suddenly.

Patchouli thought on that. Did she want to involve herself into whatever family quarrel they had?

"Not particularly." She answered as she pushed herself off her chair. She did not really want to grow too attached with anyone in this world and she thought that she was doing a good job of it so far.

* * *

**Can't believe I never mentioned this, but Millet Soup is a doujinshi series for those uninformed. Hence breaking what I said I wouldn't actually do.**


	8. Act VIII

**Updated later than usual because I was on holiday for a few days. Starting canon plot next chapter but will hopefully de rail it when possible. Unfortunately, I feel the best way to change the plot is to kill someone important but I lack the heart to kill important people. Unsure how to proceed.**

**Also tried to keep in character for Kirche but considering she is nothing like me at all, not sure how well I did. I have a feeling I portrayed Siesta into Kirche instead.**

* * *

Dark cumulonimbus clouds blotted out the stretched horizon as wave after wave of hailing rain bombarded the city of Versailles.

"This is getting out of hand" Patchouli mumbled as she observed the outrageous commotion. The experiment was a failure as a result of external factors forcing her to cease her spell before she came close to even exerting all the spare energy she had.

She had underestimated the sewage and infrastructure of the city of Versailles. Even from her vantage point in the palace, she could make out the water flooding the packed streets and the miniature forms of people as they clamored for both cover and high ground.

While the storm she conjured would not grow any larger, neither would the already gathered storm simply dissipate into thin air. The projected magic was already far beyond the point where she could simply recall her magic and reverse the spell.

"I agree. The clouds sky was pure blue only an hour ago." de Orleans commented to her left, unaware of the true source of the storm.

"Indeed it was." Patchouli replied, perfectly fine with not enlightening de Orleans of the real perpetrator.

There was silence as the pair watched the downpour from their window. Small drips of water streaked the window and Patchouli could see small puddles forming on the window frame.

"Tabitha is returning soon." de Orleans mentioned.

Patchouli nodded. She recalled the bitchy de Gallia passing a similar message earlier. The former de Orleans was returning. Hmm… which one of them was the older one?

"Then may I ask a favor?" de Orleans quipped anxiously.

"That depends on what it is." Patchouli answered. She knew better than to agree to something without knowing and agreeing with the details first. She was certain that half the 'incidents' that occurred in Gensokyo would have been resolved without violence if people were more willing to sit down and talk things out rationally.

But then Gensokyo would have been deprived of its much beloved danmaku battles.

"Will you accompany me to the de Orleans home estate?" she requested nervously.

That was an odd request. She understood that de Orleans was meant to accompany her everywhere but did not know how that correlated with going to her family home.

Was there something that de Orleans needed to do at her family estate relating to the one that was apparently no longer her twin? That was probably the reason.

"Why?" Patchouli reasonably asked.

"She cannot enter the estate without my permission and I would rather not have to deal with her trying to force her way in again." she explained.

Patchouli assumed that 'she' was referring to her more quiet twin. She had a bit of a failing imagining the tiny girl forcing her way through burly armored guards. That de Orleans mentioned that it was not the first time meant that she probably did manage it. She supposed that magic was a big advantage.

"So Tabitha consistently needs your orders to enter every time she visits." Patchouli noted. Seeing de Orleans give an affirmative, she continued. "Why can you not simply leave orders for her to be let in."

Yes. That made no sense. Could de Orleans not simply tell the estate staff to let Tabitha in.

"The King insists on this." de Orleans answered.

So de Gallia wanted her to perform rather inefficient and time wasting activity. It seemed like something a mad king would do.

Looking outside the window she saw again the dreadful weather that she had wrought. The consistent pitter patter of the rain drops against the soaking stone was very distracting.

Getting away from this sounded like an appealing prospect. And this would be a adequate recompense for her assistance in Albion in regards to her interest in the void.

But there was something she needed to check something first.

"I have no problem with visiting your home." she allowed. A change in scenery would not be unwelcome.

"Thank you very much." said a relieved de Orleans.

Pushing off her chair, Patchouli began to collect a few stationary. "When do we leave?"

de Orleans hurried to help her with some of the books. "By noon today.

That was plenty of time to check on de Gallia's condition. He should be holding court or be pretending to be socializing like all politicians.

Then there was the second de Gallia. She was less important but Patchouli hoped that she could impress her with the raging storm outside. And by 'impress' she meant humbling the girl to leaving her be and stop being a nuisance.

Looking at her assembled stationary and books, she was satisfied. This was all she needed to travel with.

She could leave the other essentials such as food and supplies to de Orleans. That was what an assistant was for was it not?

Moving to the door, she spotted de Orleans try to bring her books along. "Leave them there, please. We will return for them later."

Now, to find the two de Gallias. The older followed a schedule and should prove simple to locate but the younger was more varied in her duties.

Strolling through the corridors, she earned, yet again, curious looks from all those she passed by. Understandable, she supposed. As she was busy with her study, she had rarely ever taken a walk through the palace or interacted with its occupants beyond what was necessary.

"...rd Charles. You're uncle and you're brother's death was quite coincidence; eh? If I didn't know better I might have thought there was poison in that feast you threw for them. Patchouli could hear the loud chirping voice of the King of Gallia. From what she was hearing; it sounded like he was starting to blackmail someone.

Stopping at the arch which opened the path into the throne room, she waited. The crowd of clustered nobles listened in keen interest to the King while some, who were likely late arrivals, were shrugging of their soaked through clothes.

She could march in there right now and declare she needed to speak with de Gallia. But she was aware of proper decorum and did not want to make such a spectacular scene.

Rather she hoped that her presence outside her room with de Orleans in tow, without any outside urging would attract his attention.

Her hope was for naught however as the King continued with his dalliances and continued to not so subtly reveal the secrets of his nobles. She was certain that he had spotted her at one point and was trying to make some point by ignoring her.

Still... de Gallia was clearly fine and able so she supposed that making a storm did not drain him in the least.

But it was better to be certain. How he currently and if he was exhausted or not would be a good marker for reference.

She needed another spell which required a momentous amount of magic but was less destructive because drowning a city of people was not worth something as menial as this. She would not escape the consequences of such a mass murdering and she had no intention to be ruled as 'black' by the Yama.

Her patience lasted only an hour as she waited on the king. If he wanted to ignore her then she will forego this venture. Even if it did exhaust him then he would have had plenty of time to recover by now.

"We can leave for your estate now." Patchouli told de Orleans as she passed the dozing girl.

"Oh, of course. Thank you." de Orleans stammered with half-awake eyes.

"I should be thanking you for inviting me, no?"

"Ah. Then you're welcome?"

Patchouli stopped abruptly at a wide wooden door which lead outside. She could distinctly make out the heavy drops of rain outside.

Seeing her stop, de Orleans took the lead. "I have already arranged transport. They await us at the stable."

Pushing the doors open, de Orleans rushed through the rain, her hands over her head for whatever protection it would provide.

Muttering under her breath, Patchouli formed a makeshift umbrella to shelter herself from the rain. Why de Orleans did not use magic to keep herself dry was beyond her.

In fact, when did de Orleans have the time to prepare the trip? She had no recollection of her ever leaving her side. Did the girl predict that she would say yes?

Either the girl was a good judge of character or she herself was too predictable. She would like to think it was the former but considering her usual activities; the latter was almost more likely.

But there was nothing she could do about it now. She had the vitality of a just about every other Youkai aside from herself so she might as well enjoy the outdoor world.

...

No. Even to her, that thought seemed extremely off. But she had already agreed and did not want to appear want to take back her word. There were not a lot of other things to do presently regardless.

* * *

The Orleans family lands were only a short travel away from the Gallian capital of Versailles. Fortunately far enough away to get away from the downpour that blanketed Versailles.

"This is smaller than I had imagined." Patchouli commented on the lavish medium sized white building. There were an assortment of hand carved marble monuments that decorated the front garden and the carvings into the stone walls would have been exquisite if she was interested in architecture.

A small formation of servants and guards stood before the carriage and bowed graciously simultaneously as de Orleans drew near them. "Welcome home milady."

de Orleans gave a cursory wave of acknowledgement to the servants.

Two of the maids broke off to lead them as two mailed guards fell in step behind them. As they entered the building, Patchouli could hear the shuffling of feet as the remaining staff returned to their duties.

Now what was she to do? The pariah of the de Orleans and the current de Orleans was going were more likely than not encounter each other.

She did not know their intentions or attitudes to one another but she would prefer not being caught between them. There was only one type of location which would attract her interest.

"Where is the libr-"

"So that's your evil sister?" a loud feminine voice permeated the near empty halls and overrode whatever Patchouli was going to say.

Seeking the source, Patchouli discovered a girl who possessed a chest size that could very well match the Yama's pet Shinigami or the over enthusiastic Buddhist nun. Her red hair and dark skin made an odd sight but the former did mean that she was certain to be a noble since only they seemed to have unique colored hair.

And there was something about her that was annoying. She did not know what and she barely knew the red haired girl but she was already starting to dislike her. It was peculiarly similar to how she first felt when Kirisame first barged into her library.

Beside her was de Orleans quiet twin: Tabitha who had her head stuck in a book not too unlike herself at times. She did not seem the least perturbed by her friend's sudden outburst.

And behind them both was a row of guards at the ready, their hands on the hilts of their blades and their helmets likely hid their worried faces as they stood guard over the two nobles. As neither said a word, and de Orleans already seemed to know what was going on, Patchouli assumed this was a frequent occurrence.

"Not evil." Tabitha insisted to her friend, unmindful that everyone else in the hall could hear her small voice.

"Well, from the way you describe her she sounds pretty bad." The red hair said as she pouted. She struck a pose which only exaggerated her breasts. Patchouli wondered if she was doing that on purpose or if it was a natural reaction.

That and she seemed to not care the least that the 'evil' person that she was referencing to was within earshot and could hear everything coming out of her mouth.

"Not evil." Tabitha repeated stubbornly. The tiny girl looked her only slightly less tiny sister in the eye. "Permission?"

"Yes." de Orleans replied to whatever Tabitha wanted permission for. Her face was impassive as she faced her sister.

"Thank you." Tabitha softly replied as she hurried away. The guard behind her shifted to stop her but stopped with a look from lady de Orleans.

"Heeeyyy, Tabithaaa! What about me?!" red hair wailed as her blue haired friend disappeared around a corner. Her face fell when de Orleans failed to reappear.

"Where is the library?" Patchouli asked again, ignoring the red haired girl who was now bothering her guard. She certainly did not want to be within the hearing proximity of the red haired girl.

"Ah, yes just follow me." de Orleans said as she started to walk in the opposite direction that Tabitha went.

"Noooo! Don't leave me too!" the red haired girl wailed again as everyone left her with the nervous guard. The guard shifted anxiously as her mistress left the entrance hall with her guest.

"You won't leave me would you?" was the last words said in a sultry voice as Patchouli followed de Orleans out the room.

"Permission?" Patchouli questioned on the way to the library.

"To see mother." de Orleans answered without missing a skip.

"She needs permission to see her mother?" Patchouli asked with slight curiosity. That was an interesting arrangement but raised concerns over parental problems yet again.

"Indeed." de Orleans gave a positive.

"That is peculiar." Patchouli commented. She had thought that both of their parents were deceased and that was the reason why de Gallia had such power over them. Otherwise why had their parents not tried to protect them?

"Why does your mother not give her permission for your sister to enter?"

There was a short pause in both thought and movement as de Orleans stopped to think. "She is incapable of performing anything in her condition."

"So she is diseased?" she asked. There were a number of afflictions that would leave the victim bedridden and thus unable to lead active lives.

"She is still among the living." de Orleans answered, mishearing or misinterpreting her words.

"I meant is she sick." Patchouli clarified the homophone.

"In a way." de Orleans answered in a light tone.

"Meaning?"

"She was forcibly afflicted with madness. She drank the poison meant for my sister."

Well… that was extremely unfortunate for her. She had never read of a poison that turned the victim mad, but she supposed that it may be possible.

Still, drinking something you knew was instead of 'accidently' spilling it or otherwise was a questionable course of action' though she would not judge it just yet. Considering how complex politics were, it was certain that she knew something that she did not.

And 'forcibly' meant that there was a second party that did the poisoning. Considering everything she guessed that it was de Gallia that was responsible.

But that contradicts the passionate words about Lord de Orleans that de Gallia shared with her. If the King of Gallia truly held his brother in so highly then why would he force his two daughters into servitude?

How did the father of the de Orleans twins die anyhow? De Gallia only mentioned that he was dead and what a great and perfect man he was. And neither de Orleans ever mentioned their parents before this day.

"How did your father die?" she asked suddenly.

de Orleans hesitated momentarily as she was caught off guard by the question. "Ah, he died in a hunting accident. Shot from behind by a fellow hunter."

Ah. That was convenient, and getting shot to death by a friendly hunter was a well-documented means of staging an assassination and making it appear as an accident. But who would kill him?

de Gallia would make no sense. Why would he kill his so we regarded brother? So it must be some other lord plotting for more power. If she had more knowledge on the workings and structure of Gallian politics then she could come up with far more possible suspects.

"My uncle was likely the perpetrator." de Orleans quipped as if she read her thoughts.

Oh. That was a somewhat interesting twist. It really did add to that mad personage that she had of de Gallia.

* * *

Patchouli frowned as a ray of sunlight shone on her. The shadows of an outside tree were excruciatingly bothering as they covered the page of a story book that she was reading.

Yes. She was reading a fictional story from Halkegenia and her review of it so far was that it was too black and white. Novels which possessed an array of characters that were morally grey and questioned the predefined concepts of other stories were always interesting to read.

Unfortunately she doubted she would find any such thing here. It was likely that writing fiction in this world was not a developed industry and was thus limited authors as they repeated the working repetitive plots rather than experiment.

Protagonist is a hero. Protagonist meets love interest. Love interest is kidnapped by a dragon/sorcerer/demon. Protagonist saves love interest and they live happily ever after.

Though considering that the first two were actual aspects in this world, it was not completely outside the realm of possibility for it to happen.

This one in particular was rather dull.

A white knight falls in love with princess. Princess is captured by evil king who wants to marry her. White knight defeats evil king and marries princess then they live happily ever after.

As to why she was reading such garbage. de Orlean's library was filled with this romance/adventure novels. Someone must have really enjoyed reading such things to hide away the cold harsh reality with a wall of fantasy.

If nothing else, they provided her a good chuckle or two as she mentally points out the many flaws in the plots: such as how the old teacher gathered the materials to build an airship by himself, how the villians become incompetent every time they faced the hero or why the hero himself not feel affected with killing thousands of people whilst he was a simply person only days ago.

"Wow… you're just like Tabitha." The voice echoed across the musty library.

Glancing up, she saw the same red haired girl from before who was now leaning on the side of a book shelf; casually skimming the book.

"I would not compare myself with her." Patchouli dully replied. She was approximately a century the girl's senior and likely was more studious than her too.

"Are you so sure, Patchouli de Knowl, Duchess of Pogostemon and Royal Advisor to the Crown of Gallia.

'Knowl'? Was that seriously the formal name that de Gallia gave her? That was terrible name. And the 'Duchess of Pogostemon'? How did he even know the name of the genus from the lamiaceae family? She doubted the research into plant life was that advanced here.

"Surprised that I know your name?" the red hair continued. Her mouth formed a smile of amusement as she mistakenly thought she had the drop on the Youkai magician.

"N-" Patchouli began to reply before she was cut off again.

"Pierre was quite willing to share everything he had with me." The girl admitted without shame.

Who was this Pierre? A common French name that was essentially 'Peter' in English. There were likely thousands in Halkgenia who had that name.

"Suddenly appeared in court, and rarely seen. Said to be Joseph de Gallia's lover while his wife is in a nunnery… " she continued regardless.

Oh. So that was what happened to de Gallia's wife. With Joseph de Gallia's lack of supervision and the mother's absence, it was not hard to see how the smaller de Gallia became like that. A neglected child seeking attention from anyone they can get it from regardless of what form they receive it… a pitiful existence.

"But Tabitha says that you were summoned as a familiar." the girl said as she drew nearer.

That was strange of the small Gallian agent to reveal something like that. She had thought the girl understood the point of keeping secrets.

"So you aren't just his lover…" the red haired rat said.

"You're his sex slave!" she accused, uncaring of how ridiculous it sounded.

Patchouli stopped listening at this. It appears that all Tabitha told her was that she was summoned as a familiar and not how she nearly killed her summoner.

"A poor girl forcibly dragged from her home to serve a manly master. At first she is reluctant and then she starts slowly falling for her kind and…"

Patchouli toned her words out. She did not need this type of material contaminating her mind. She was clearly playing out some scenario from her head because it was completely impossible that such adult material could possibly have been written in this world.

* * *

**There are somehow… doujinshi Fist of the North Star crossovers with Touhou. And no, only characters from Touhou are used. "Milady is in her growth period!" is both hilarious and disturbing. Such images will be forever ingrained in my head. Finished my ramble.**


	9. Act IX

**I wrote this one rather quickly and don't feel it is adequate. But I also feel that the next part deserves a chapter by itself so... well here goes anyway. Lost track of the timeline but assuming that this will occur before the summoning of the Saito. Also just noticed after writing this, but, for the first time, I forgot to put some really obscure reference to something other media or fiction here. **

* * *

"You look rather bad." Patchouli took note of the disheveled state that de Orleans was in; as their carriage rode through the city gates.

"I always look as such when my sister visits." de Orleans admitted sorrowfully.

"I suppose your sorry state is related to the drama that resolves around your sister and mother." Patchouli deducted, certain that that was the cause.

"In a way." de Orleans admitted again. "Being understood and forgiven feels worse than being hated."

Patchouli nodded to the truth in that. In certain circumstances and context, forgiveness struck the heart deeper than otherwise. She did not have to think hard on who forgave her since the two possible people included one that was terminally mad. Though it did raise the question to what de Orleans did that needed forgiveness.

She supposed that it was related to her status. The two de Orleans were both espionage agents though she suspected that Tabitha had a more active and dangerous role. Despite this; one still had a noble title and rank with all its entitlements while the other was merely referred to as 'Tabitha'.

"No words of advice?" de Orleans said, knowing full well that she had none.

"Do you expect advice from me?" Patchouli asked with skepticism. She was no social worker and the only family circumstances she was aware with could not even be compared to this.

The Scarlet Family drama involved a lot more blood and the family was far closer to each other and loved each other than the mess that seemed to the Gallian Royal family.

"Not really. You don't seem to be the social type of person." Josette playfully noted.

"An amazing deduction." Patchouli sarcastically replied. She would have never have known that she was the anti-social type.

Riding into the palace, Patchouli was mildly surprised to see de Gallia himself waiting on the still muddy footpath to the grand hall.

"We need to speak." was all he simply said in an uncharacteristic tone before he strode back into the castle, dragging muddy footprints after him.

It was the same tone she first heard when he had commanded everyone to leave the room and gave her that task to kill a prince.

"Shall we?" Patchouli said as she disembarked the carriage. Unlike the King, she used a simple spell that levitated her across the muddy surface. It was a disadvantage of void magic she supposed, unable to cast anything but spells associated with it.

Actually what spells were associated with it? She had never seen de Gallia cast anything outside the familiar summoning all that time ago. This train of thought needs to be locked away and secured for a later time.

As an afterthought, she helped de Orleans across as well. The girl yelped in surprise before understanding the spell and giving a nod of thanks.

Promptly following de Gallia, she was led to the same office she had been using for quite some time. He gestured for her to seat herself but she was already sitting before he could finish the movement.

"It has been a long time since I needed you to do anything." de Gallia commented.

"It has." Patchouli agreed. It has been an especially long hiatus since she performed any task on his behalf. Not that she especially minded since it was beneficial to her.

"As a result, I don't suppose you mind doing two tasks for me? I assure that both will be short and quick." de Gallia said.

Patchouli frowned but did not outright refuse. It was fair that she back up her end of her agreement.

But then it was de Gallia's own fault that he chose not to utilize her more often.

"Name them." Patchouli requested first, refusing to give a definite answer just yet.

"Of course. The first is blocking a road and the second is simply arranging something." de Gallia provided.

The first sounded simple enough. Causing a rock slide or otherwise was easily within her skill.

She supposed he wanted to stop someone from reaching somewhere or cut some trade route or something. Once he tells here then she could probably figure out who he was trying to disturb.

The second was far too vague to make anything of it.

"Arranging something?" Patchouli questioned.

"Just contacting a thief to steal something." de Gallia elaborated slightly.

"I do not see why I would be needed to do something so mundane." Patchouli admitted. Surely something like that could be performed better by someone else.

"Well, I also require you to obtain her services willingly or otherwise if she succeeds. I need more people like that." de Gallia admitted to a second phase to the plan.

Patchouli now nodded in understanding. So he wanted her to drag the thief back to him in chains but would prefer if the thief came willingly.

"Is this thief a magician?" She inquired. If this was a simple mundane thief then she very much doubted that she would be required, though she supposed that de Gallia would try to get her to do so regardless for humor.

"Oh yes, likely a triangle or even square class mage with a focus on Earth. Not too many of those nowadays. That's why I want him you see." de Gallia said as he withdrew some papers from the drawers of the desk that she knew were not there earlier.

"Fonquet the Crumbling Dirt, gender: unknown, real name: unknown, location: suspected to be Northern Tristian." de Gallia read of the note.

Handing it over to her, Patchouli was given a picture that was inconclusive about the appearance of the thief. It was a well-drawn picture but as the thief was dressed in a full black robe that concealed their form, she could not gleam any information from it.

The information that de Gallia gave on Fonquet was telling about why she was needed. If she chose to resist de Gallia's conscription then she would have to force her. If she recalled correctly, square was the second highest rank a magician could reach here so she would not be a complete pushover.

"And how exactly am I to find her?" Patchouli said as she resigned herself to questioning her 'master'. She did not know whether de Gallia was doing purposefully; but he never went into detail about things without her prompting. Perhaps it was some sort of measure to increase their interactions what whatever use that may be.

"Josette will help you." de Gallia said as he gestured to the person in question who did not shift when attention was momentarily shifted to her. Of course she would. That was the answer to everything that she could not do herself was it not?

She bit back her sarcastic reply. It would be wasted breath on someone like him; in fact it would likely further amuse him.

"And what do you want the thief to steal?" Patchouli questioned. de Gallia had refrained from informing her as to what he wanted the thief to steal.

"Ah now isn't that an interesting question." de Gallia said with strange glee.

How was the question interesting? If she was to negotiate some sort of contract with the thief then she needed to know what he wanted to steal first.

"Let's say it will be a surprise." de Gallia finished. "Just hand her this letter and negotiate her service if she succeeds."

Receiving the letter, Patchouli read the words on the clean letter with 'To the devious Fonquet of the Crumbling Dirt' in curly lettering.

"And don't bother trying to open it. It's enchanted to only open to the receiver." de Gallia warned her seriously.

Enchanted to only op... Was she legitimately expected to believe that such a convenient enchantment existed? It was surely a poor jest or some trick.

Even if it was true, her control of magic was delicate enough to burn only the letter and the contents inside.

"Now let's stop with this talk of skulduggery and talk about something more pleasant." de Gallia said as he unceremoniously changed the subject.

"I would rather not." Patchouli flatly stated. Did the human male not understand the need for planning and ensuring that the participants were fully aware of what to do? In fact she did not recall saying yes to this, not that she had any real objection to this to begin with.

"Marvelous, do you know the latest news from Albion?" de Gallia continued on, outright ignoring her.

"No." Patchouli truthfully stated with an air of resignation. Why did she even bother with this?

"Those Reconquista still haven't finished off King James. Stuck with their backs against the edge of the isle, the Royal Army doesn't seem to want to give up." de Gallia summed up the end of the Tudor dynasty. Their story was coming to an end. "What is that idiot Cromwell doing? I gave him plenty of bang and he can't finish off a ragtag army."

"Throw your soldiers into positions whence there is no escape, and they will prefer death to flight. If they will face death, then there is nothing they may not achieve. Officers and men alike will put forth their uttermost strength." Patchouli quoted from an excerpt from the Art of War. It seemed appropriate.

Thought she doubted the 'nothing they may not achieve' part, she was fairly certain that an army would fight its best like a cornered animal when forced to choose between dying resigned to fate or dying resisting the end. In general, most living beings hold life dear yet embrace death just as much.

She supposed that King James of Albion wanted to make a spectacular last stand and from what de Gallia said about how Reconquista was failing, she supposed that he was succeeding.

"Wise words indeed." de Gallia acknowledged. "You would fight all the harder knowing that was the only choice."

"That is the point." Patchouli agreed. Sun Tzu was an interesting man whose thought process was rather advanced compared to some of his fellow man; in the context of how to competently wage a military campaign anyhow.

"They'll probably go for Tristain next. That's why I want the object stolen first." de Gallia rambled on.

Patchouli could agree with his thought that Tristain would be the next target. She was no military genius but Tristain was clearly the weakest of the remaining nations and the opportunity of gaining a foothold on the main continent.

Speaking of Tristain, did de Gallia still want those two dead? Queen Marriane and Cardinan Mazaran if she remembered correctly.

Glancing at him as he ranted on with his predictions of how Reconquista will fare against the remaining kingdom; she wisely chose not to remind him. The two were likely going to be killed in Reconquista's invasion regardless.

One of the intended points of revolution meant not leaving any of the previous rulers capable of a counter revolution. And the simplest way to achieve this was to kill them.

Patchouli waved her hand to de Orleans and motioned for her to come closer. "Do you have anything useful to say pertaining to these tasks?"

de Orleans shook her head in negative. "His highness generally passes my orders along in the form of detailed documents."

Patchouli frowned deeply with that revelation. Why could the annoying man not do the same with her and spare her these long winded rants? She suspected the man was either trying to annoy her or had far too much free time and so he decided to waste it on her.

She could take her pick of either and she would likely be correct.

"If that is all, then I will leave immediately!" Patchouli loudly stated, raising her voice to make herself be heard over de Gallia as she interrupted his angry rage against the Pope.

She really did not know why he held the hub of his Faith in with such enmity, much less their leader. And she did not care to learn.

Before he could object or do anything to stop her, she was out the door with de Orleans anxiously waiting for her orders.

* * *

"I do not mind particularly; but is there a certain reason you have been chosen to aid me again?" Patchouli questioned de Orleans.

"What we are doing would likely result in a death sentence if we were to be captured." she answered, unconcerned about the prospect of death.

Ah. So de Gallia wanted her dead for whatever reason.

No. Not just her but her sister as well. She was spying in Tristain for their void user... she needed to remember to check up on that.

Still it was rather odd that de Gallia not only killed the perfect brother that he admired but is also attempting to discreetly get his children killed. She supposed that he was responsible for poisoning the mother too...

An odd and psychopathic man he was.

Patchouli nonchalantly glanced at the robed magicians who rode around their carraige as escort. Did she not fear that one of the guards could eavesdrop and leak information? "You seem rather unconcerned about our guards."

"I know their faces. Their all Knights of the Northern Parterre." de Orleans reassured, either unconcerned or pretending to be. "They're here to watch you just as much to watch me."

Patchouli's bow creased in thought. Knights to watch them as much as to protect them. And these knights doubled as Assassins, Spies and saboteurs. They would be quite convenient for finding Fonquet but would probably see her sneaking a peek at the letter.

"Milady, if you would refrain from mentioning us so freely; it would be much appreciated." the one closest to them hushed out in a raspy tone.

"And what is the appropriate term we should use?" Patchouli inquired.

"... Knights of the Sourthern Parterre. We'll be the knights in shining armor for once." was the reply she received before the rider drew away back into formation.

"Where is the valley that he wanted blocked? Patchouli asked when the rider was outside what she assumed was earshot.

de Orleans pulled out a map from somewhere on her person. Her finger landed on the area of interest.

It was on the border of the Kingdom of Gallia and the Empire of Romalia. While the latter sounded stronger, the former was far larger than the Empire.

She supposed that it was their influence and religious significance that kept Gallia and Germania from annexing it. It would have been the equivalent of starting a war against her world's papal states. Such an attack would rally everyone else against the aggressor.

The pass that de Gallia wanted closed appeared to be the only path through the mountain fringe that lay on the border of Gallia and Romalia. From what she saw; the alternate routes were circling the entirety of the mountains or passing by air.

Patchouli snagged on that thought. What was the point of closing the path when travel by air was possible? In fact, with the magic here, the time required to clear the pass would be short indeed.

Raising these points with de Orleans, her reply was. "A Romalian ambassadorial party is traveling by foot to Gallia. According to his highness, he wants to delay them."

"For what purpose?" Patchouli asked in curiosity. de Gallia had made it rather clear to her that he hated Romalia and their effeminate leader with a passion. Despite this, he never stated outright hostility outside how annoying they were.

"His highness did not specify his reasons but I would suspect he is attempting to prove a political point." de Orleans answered.

Politics... So it was not simply because he was bored and wanted to bother to religious priests. If it was for some deep political reason that started with a single ill-timed comment, then her interest was finished.

Now... de Gallia likely knew that she would be unable to hold back her curiosity and would delve into looking into the letter. So thus, to not do what he wants, she should not read the letter.

However it was also completely possible that he also knows that she would come to this conclusion and would thus be assured that his letter was safe from her eyes. In which case, she could open it to satisfy her curiosity while not following along with what he thought she would do. She did not have a particular reason for not wanting to be an actor is his play, but conforming to it and not resisting it felt... wrong to her.

So essentially: de Gallia knew that she would likely open the letter. But she knew that de Gallia knew that she would likely open the letter. However he knew that she knew that he knew that she would likely open the letter and thus was trying to use reverse psychology on her. Likely why he said it was a 'surprise' because he knew that she would open it.

But she was going to do it anyway. She was curious and there was very little that she would not do for knowledge. It was her namesake after all.

She was not disobeying de Gallia per say either. She had agreed to follow his orders and she did not really intend to not follow through with them. Equal exchange and it would be fair. The world was not fair and tended to attack you at all times. That does not mean she should contribute to the mess that the world was in.

Rather hypocritical words coming from her. Her hands were stained with blood and some would likely curse her very name. She supposed that she would rather not fall below her moral standards and be regarded as unfaithful and untrustworthy because being regarded as such was very depressing.

Slipping the letter out of her cloak, she ripped the head off and took the the paper inside. As expected, de Gallia was completely lying about that so called enchantment.

_To the thief known only as Fonquet the Crumbling Dirt._

_I, Joshed Pelagial humbly requests your services for a commission that only someone with your esteemed skills can perform._

'Joshed Pelagial'. Patchouli took a moment to think on the alias before rearranging the words to Joseph de Gallia. An anagram, what an original and amazing means of ensuring that no one will discover your real name. After all it was clearly more secure than creating a completely random fake name where the chances of discovery was nonexistent.

_There is a artifact of great value that I require. It is our esteemed Founder's own Prayer Book which has caught my interest._

The Founder's Personal Prayer Book. This was the surprise? Well it was certainly surprising that de Gallia want to steal a bible equivalent but it was not as interesting as de Gallia made it out to be. She thought he disliked that religion of his or was it only extended to those who stood at the head of it.

_I suspect that it is located into the much praised vault of Tristain's prestigious Academy of Magic._ _I do not know how you could gain entry into the vault but if you choose to directly force your way in and require excessive amounts of over the top firepower, then please refer to the one who passed this note on to you. I do not know the full extent of her power but she could likely destroy the entire academy. So if you need any assistance in bypassing the defences or require a large bang! then you need only ask._

Patchouli frowned at the mention of her. She knew that de Gallia fully expected her to read this before handing it to the thief, but was unsure if de Gallia was subtly insulting her abilities or praising her.

_As to why I do not use her to perform this task for me. My associate either does not understand stealth or simply chooses to not exercise it on previous assignments._

Now that was clearly an insult. She would concede that stealth was not her strong point, but she could argue that she was leagues ahead of other inhabitants of Gensokyo simply by understanding the concept and necessity of stealth. Even the thieving rat resorted to brute force to get into the library rather than stealth when she stole her books, or in her words; 'borrowed indefinitely'.

_Of course, you will be rewarded handsomely for this task. My associate will provide a down payment of one thousand new gold coins before you even do the deed. Quite a lot of money is it not?_

So that was what was in the chest stowed away in the back of the carriage. It was likely why they needed guards too. Protection was not needed but when carrying money into the thousands, one would expect a heavily armed caravan. She supposed that ten magical knights in regal yet practical clothes would be adequate to drive away most.

That and de Gallia was gambling with this down payment. She was not certain how much value one thousand new gold coins was worth but it sounded like a considerable amount of money. He was gambling that the thief would be greedy enough to try for the full payment rather than simply running off with the thousand coins.

_When you have acquired the book, please pass it along to my associate who will validate the legitimacy of the prayer book and then pay you the rest of payment. A full ten thousand new gold coins. More wealth than even quite some nobles will ever see._

Patchouli glanced at the chest. It didn't seem to hold eleven thousand coins inside it. But she supposed that she was mistaken. Unless there was some enchantment that made the chest able to carry a limitless amount of items. While this specific enchantment was possible, she very much doubted it.

At the very least, she would not have to chase down the thief a second time. By making the thief personally come back to her to deliver the book, she could offer him a chance to work with de Gallia... actually it was likely better to have de Orleans handle the negotiations. Her social skills were... less than adequate when dealing with negotiations outside of demands.

de Gallia wanted a willing servant. If she was left in charge of negotiations it would likely result in the thief refusing and her having to force him. de Orleans would stand a higher chance of being able to entice the thief.

_I wish you luck and bid you farewell. _

_Regards_

_Joshed Pelagial_

She wondered why he wrote this letter like he was having a one sided conversation. It was completely dictation.

Likewise it was too easy for someone with relative intelligence to put together that Joseph de Gallia was the source of this letter. First, she was posing as a Gallian noble and would likely be housed accordingly with Gallian knights as bodyguards. The first thought on where the letter was from would obviously be the Kingdom of Gallia.

The amount of money, as stated in the letter itself, was beyond what the majority of nobles were capable of casually throwing away. That itself limited the number of possible sources in Gallia.

And really, if one knew the name Joseph de Gallia and could not decipher Joshed Pelagial, then a cunning thief should be capable of figuring that out.

Or perhaps de Gallia left these hints on purpose to subtly let the thief know that he was dealing with a king of a powerful country. That would either help persuading the thief to work with him or scare the thief away. Concerning him, she was not certain whether these were genuine oversights or part of some intricate plot.

* * *

**Nothing of interest is put here aside from my wish to see more Shinki doujinshi. Why ZUN?! What happened to Shinki-sama. The only ones I've seen with her mostly involves her being comically abused by Alice!**


	10. Act X

**Does Remilia and Patchouli's relationship seem to be quite a comparison to Kirche and Tabitha's? The quiet studious one and the over energetic bubbly one. Of course, Kirche isn't a loli but still.**

**I could probably continue this chapter but its night here and I don't have the time for the next few days. Really sorry about that. Reality is annoying like that.**

* * *

Josette watched in subdued awe as the steep of the dry mountains crashed down onto the road below, completely burying the dirt road below. The hard motion of the rock fall kicked up billows of dust and debris that spread out onto the mountain covering the Alpes range.

She withheld her shiver as she contemplated facing Patchouli Knowledge. A part of her wanted to forego her planned venture at the possibility of facing one that possessed magic that may be comparable to a greater spirit. With a few mere murmured words, she had used magic that was just as monumental as her small star and rainstorm feat.

_Bravery and fear is entwined. _She silently murmured the long practiced words her deceased father passed down to her and her sister. The words she used to steady her path. _To be brave is to be afraid, but have to will to move forward regardless. Cowardice is only wh-_

"Can we leave now?" she heard Patchouli say with the usual disinterested tone she speaks in, her amethyst eyes looking at her for confirmation to whether the blockade was adequate.

"Of course." She mildly replied. She glanced at the leader of the disguised Knights of Northern Parterre, who gave a slight nod before waving his men to reform. The gathered knights snapped out of their stupor to quickly return to their positions.

Before long, the entire caravan was off again, going back the trail they came from; the knights solemnly silent but chatty as soon as they passed by fellow travelers.

"Our next destination is Tristania." Josette said for Patchouli's benefit. She knew the woman had a basic geography of Halkegenia but doubted that she delved into the finer details.

"The capital of Tristain?" Patchouli questioned as she slide a book from her cloak to her hand.

"Yes." Josette answered, not surprised that she knew more than she had assumed. It was a lesson she learned rather quickly with their time together. Patchouli tended to know far more than she had thought. "According to the information provided by his highness, Fonquets crimes are centered on the city. By the King's own advice, we should begin our search there."

She hated having to structure her sentence in a manner that would glorify the man that ruined her family. But she knew that the knights already suspected her of treachery and a single misstep would lead to her death.

"And how do we proceed from there?" her companion asked. It was a very good question that the king had decided to leave to them.

"The King provided no further instructions." She replied. He liked doing that. Intentionally leaving out information and allowing her into dangerous situations to see how she would react to them and whether she would survive.

"Typical." Patchouli said, sharing the same sentiment as her.

"How do you advise we proceed then?" Patchouli asked her.

This was a nuance she was unsure about. Whether Patchouli really didn't know what the best option was or rather she did not bother and relied on her.

"We should enter Tristania first. From there the knights can begin by asking fences for information." she advised.

Even if Fonquet was a prodigious thief; that did not change the fact that he would need to use fences to exchange stolen goods. While the thief may have kept their identity a secret from the officials, he may have been more lax about secrecy around fences.

"I thought fences did not sell out their suppliers." Patchouli added. "It certainly would not help their business."

"Yes. It's considered professional courtesy to not sell your fellow criminals out. Honor among thieves, I suppose." she agreed. But everyone had a price and if it was too steep... well, there was a limit to everyone's pain tolerance.

"Honor among thieves is a joke. Their trade does not add to society and is a destructive path. Those that steal as a necessity are pitiable. Those that steal for simple convenience are scum not worth mentioning. " Patchouli noted with some disgust, likely with some past experience with the latter type.. Though who would be bold enough to steal from someone so powerful, that summoning a storm didn't even affect her in the least, was beyond her.

"Could we not simply look for the single colored haired person in the shadiest parts of the city?" Patchouli asked.

She understood her intent and would have to disagree with it. There were plenty a noble that had plain hair. It was just that Patchouli's interactions with nobles outside herself, the king and Isabella were nonexistent.

Though she would not discount it outright, by some lucky chance, they may just come across the thief simply because he had a unique hair color like bright green or some other unusual pigment.

"Of course, I will pass it along to the knights." She replied. Neither she nor Patchouli was particularly suited to direct field operations as usual, thought for different reasons. She lacked the strength and the practical skills to do field work while Patchouli was simply not subtle enough and seemed not the least concerned with maintaining her masquerade.

The woman she had been assigned to was an anomaly by herself. She was actually interested in the world that she came from; Patchouli clearly seemed to hold humans here in disdain but seemed more respectful when mentioning the humans in hers.

Her sudden appearance had originally thrown her plans into disarray and she had set them back until she could better understand the inhuman woman. A ridiculously powerful bodyguard to the King was going to be a huge obstacle.

It was by good luck that the king had for some reason place her as a assistant/ advisor to his new familiar. While that bit into her other contacts, she come to see that the relationship between master and familiar was just cordial and Patchouli did seem loyal beyond keeping her word.

Admittedly the time she spent with Patchouli was more... 'Fun'. While the constant research and sorting through books was tedious at best, it was certainly felt vastly more rewarding than plotting sabotage and assassinations for the king. The act of ending one's life was something that she could do without batting an eye and that was a fact that she was not proud of.

She felt bad that she was only being so helpful because it would make Patchouli's deposition to her rise up. Her grand scheme needed Patchouli to side with her over her current master. In fact her grand scheme could fall apart rather easily otherwise, but it could also be so much easier just as simply.

She didn't know what the king offered Patchouli in exchange for her aid. She could only hinge herself on the hope that Patchouli preferred her freedom from the Myoznitnirn runes over whatever the king offered. She certainly did not have the power to combat her.

* * *

Patchouli closed the curtains in a futile attempt to close off the insufferable noise of a city. She gave out a deep sigh as the action had no effect on the booming level of volume. She wished that she had invented a spell that could block out noise on a target in motion.

Unfortunately magic was not as convenient as that. While magic seemed to cover just about every possible thing conceivable it just was not as simple as that. Magic could not be used as a convenient tool all the time.

If it was, then she could the thief to appear in front of her right now. She could magic the runes herself instead of dedicating research to it. She could even magic herself a way out of this world. But then it would not make for a tale, now will it? There would be no problem or issue that magic could not solve.

"Quite lively isn't it?" de Orleans said, pointing out the quite obvious amount of people going on with their lives present. She was peering out the window to take in the dusty view of what she supposed was meant to be a market place.

"Indeed." Patchouli agreed with a sigh. It was far too noisy for her liking. Her attempts to drone them out like she did with de Gallia so far were failing. It was far easier to block out one person than several hundred at once.

"The Tristainian Academy of Magic is located nearby as well." de Orleans continued onto a completely irrelevant subject.

The Tristainian Academy of Magic? That was where her sister was at was it not? Looking for the Tristainian Void user if she recalled correctly. She wondered if she was successful, it would be useful to have a second subject of the void to study; after all the chances of de Gallia telling her if Tabitha was successful or not was little to nothing.

"That's where that sexual predator is? Isn't it?" Patchouli frowned at the memory of her in the de Orlean's estate. The constant jabs at her imaginary illicit relationship to de Gallia were incessantly annoying. It was almost on par with Kirisame's constant jabs at her 'bookworm' nature, Kirisame staying ahead because she committed herself to testing her defenses for her library.

"Do you mean Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt-Zerbst?" de Orleans asked, knowing full well who she was referring to.

"If that was her name, then yes." Patchouli played along. Her name itself was rather ironic. 'Kirche' meant 'Church' in German and she did not seem to match the description of a devout member of a Church in the least. That girl was trying very hard to be the opposite of a chaste member of a Church.

Though, she supposed that the standards of the church were not the same as her world. They did not seem to have hunters dedicated to hunt 'demons' and 'witches' for one.

But if all of them were like that von Anhalt-Zerbst… she shuddered at the thought of scandalous nuns and lusty priests running around spouting things like that girl did. It was… disturbing to say the least.

"Is there a particular reason that you would bring this up?" Patchouli asked de Orleans.

"Do you wish to visit it?" de Orleans asked, revealing her intent for bringing this subject up.

Did she wish to meet that von Anhalt-Zerbst again?

"No. No, I do not." She bluntly stated. She would despise a meeting with her again and would try to steer clear of her as much as possible.

"Are you sure? The Academy is famed to have a grand library. It would be a pleasant change to the Gallian Library." de Orleans insisted.

A different library? That was more tempting and she could admit that the Gallian Library was running out of useful resources. But de Orleans was a bit too insistent on this than she would consider normal.

"Is there a specific reason that you wish to visit it?" she asked her assistant. She was becoming pushier lately, now that she thought about it.

"Not in particular." She shrugged in response.

Patchouli did not push for an answer. She could imagine a very plausible one for herself.

It was clear that Josette held some deep affection for her sister and more likely than not hate for de Gallia, her uncle. The latter did not matter in this situation but with the former, she supposed that Josette wanted to meet up with her sister.

Why she would want to? Sisterly love, she supposed. Despite all the trouble that Flandre occasionally caused years past, Remilia's love for her did not seem to waver in the least. She gave into her whims for the most part as long as it was not completely crazy within the Gensokyo context where crazy things happened all the time.

Was there a point to visit it outside Josette's interest in meeting her sister? The library sounded interesting.

"And searching for Fonquet?" she asked. She could not forget their purpose here. Though, admittedly all she was doing was playing the role of a glorified messenger and could likely not contribute to finding the thief at all.

Then there was the point where she may or may not need to fight the thief. She would hope that she did not need to. While danmaku was all fun and good, real life battles where one could receive fatal injuries or even die was something she would rather avoid.

"The knights are better suited to this than we are. After all they are you know…" Josette trailed on in a manner that made it seem more dramatic. She wondered if a knack for dramatization was in the blue haired family genes.

"And I suppose that no one will notice some of our guards are missing." Patchouli asked skeptically. They certainly did not have the large number of guards needed so that no one will notice a few were missing.

"Tristain's security is terribly inadequate. It is ridiculously easy to infiltrate their facilities. " Josette tried to reassure.

Patchouli frowned. That was both interesting and good to know but did not answer her question. "That does not hide missing men."

"People will assume that our security will simply be typical Tristain. After all there are times where I question if Tristain even employs guards to simply watch the walls for something like siege golems." Josette said, greatly downplaying the level of security in an entire country.

So to be terrible at maintaining adequate protection was to blend in with Tristain. That was discouraging to know.

And her last comment was a joke. She did not know what a siege golem but from the name it was likely used to breach defensive walls. Logically, it must be quite large to adequately perform such a task. There was absolutely no way that one could infiltrate anywhere.

* * *

**Omg! There's new Millet Soup. Huzzah! Emerald Megalith! Evolve into a giant Emerald Gun! Huzzah! And a big Shanghai! Huzzah! **


	11. Act XI

**Can anyone remember why exactly Fonquet was going for the Staff of Destruction specifically? I think it was a request from Reconquista or something but I'm not too sure.**

* * *

"Only one guard?" Patchouli commented as their carriage drove straight through the unbarred castle gates to the Tristainian Academy of Magic. The sole guard gave them only a cursory glance but did not take any other form of action. Looking around the wall's battlements and parapets, she could not see any other form of watchmen or patrol.

It seems that de Orleans claims of lax security were to be taken seriously. How no one has taken advantage of this yet was beyond her. Perhaps this was where Fonquet was?

A castle filled with rich children who could be kidnapped, plenty of likely expensive things to be fenced and a whole vault filled with magical artifacts that were likely worth a fortune. That and security was extremely lax and there seemed to be minimal guards, the few there were being unable or unwilling to be competent.

"A consequence of noble arrogance." de Orleans said as she looked outside the window, her eyes thoughtful as she looked at… some trees.

"Yes. That would be an explainable reason." Patchouli agreed. An oxymoron as nobles should not really be displaying arrogance but rather humbleness, Noblesse Oblige and all.

She supposed that de Orleans implied that the nobles here thought that no one would possibly think of stealing from them and so did not bother putting up any form of security just in case some did. That was ridiculously stupid. Even by human standards.

The carriage slowed down as they reached what looked like the main building. Various servants hurried on with their tasks, but most if not all shot the carriage some curious looks before they disappeared around some corner outside of her field of vision. Not a single one seemed interested in being the reception to their sudden guests.

"And now what?" Patchouli asked. Even if the faculty here was careless, they could not possibly just be willing to allow two foreign nobles prance freely in their school. But then again, she could be overestimating them.

"I suppose that some of the commoner staff is calling for their superiors as we speak." De Orleans responded as the footman, an agent in disguise, opened the carriage door for them.

It took only a minute for a green haired woman, in a clean outfit that set her apart from the rest of the commoner staff, to hurriedly fast walk towards them, her mouth moving constantly in a way that expressed that she was certainly upset or angry with someone. Her words become more legible as she drew closer.

From the sound of it, she was angrily rambling on about some old man and him being a quote 'lazy molesting ass'.

This of course, all stopped when she stopped in front of them and politely bowed. Her tone was now polite and curt compared to the harsher rumbling. "Good morning. I am Miss Lougueville, the secretary of the Tristainian Academy of Magic. How can I help you?"

"Good morning. I'm Josette de Orleans." Josette introduced herself and waited for Patchouli to follow.

Suppressing a sigh, Patchouli introduced herself by her rather odd noble name. She could understand that knowledge would not be a convincible noble name but she preferred it to "And I am Patchouli de Knowl."

"And your business here?" Lougueville asked. A bit too interested than normal but not suspiciously so.

"Just a visit. My friend is an avid scholar and would be interested in the prestigious library that you keep maintained here." de Orleans said, speaking for Patchouli, who was completely fine with that.

"Of course, there is no problem with that. May I ask for how long will you stay." Lougueville asked politely.

"Just a few days." Patchouli answered this time. That should be an adequate amount of time to find and read the books that were not found in the much larger Gallian library.

"Very well. I'm afraid that we cannot provide accommodation however." Lougueville said sounding somewhat apologetic as was appropriate.

"That is fine. We have our own accommodations in Tristainia." de Orleans said, her tone reassuring.

They did. They went from Tristainia to Tristain's Academy of Magic as soon as they arrived in the city. She supposed that this was another minor detail that de Gallia arranged but did not tell her, instead passing it along to de Orleans.

"Well then, do you require a tour of the premise?" the secretary of the Tristainian Academy of Magic asked.

"That would be appreciated." de Orleans replied as Patchouli nodded in agreement. Getting lost would be a waste of their time later and would be inconvenient. But then she only needed to go to the library no?

…

Actually it would be good to take a look at what kind of magic they taught here. Their brand of elemental magic was universally inferior to hers; and she was certain that many human magicians' here would not believe her claim that she used spirits in her magic.

But they may have a unique idea somewhere hidden with mediocrity. Humans were experts at adapting their methods so they have to spend less times doing menial things.

But then again… the humans of this world were shamefully behind the ones in her world.

"May we be guests in lectures?" Patchouli asked the green haired magician.

"As long as you do not disrupt the class, there is no problem with that. However classes are off today." Lougueville replied, accepting of her request.

"Tomorrow then?" Patchouli noted and went quiet again. Miss Lougueville waited for a few awkwards moments for the purple haired magician to say something else before it became clear that nothing was forthcoming.

"I will have a maid provide you a tour. Your carriage can be left by the stable." Lougueville said as she gestured to a distant stable further away.

"Very well. Thank you very much." De Orleans said.

* * *

"And this is the Vestri Court milady's." the maid that was touring them said. She gestured to her left outside the window to the extremely wide open courtyard.

Patchouli suppressed the urge to sigh and show her boredom. This was necessary for her to understand the premise and not get lost.

de Orleans had suggested that they stay for a few days and allow her to study in the library. Of course, this would be under the pretense of looking for Fonquet.

It was a somewhat plausible excuse. The Tristanian Academy of Magic apparently kept a magic vault holding several mystical and ancient artifacts. There were likely a number of people, including herself, who wanted to obtain such items.

She wondered if she could get the thief to steal something for her from the vault. It would be faster than waiting for de Gallia to pass one along to her.

She would even be willing to pay the thief. While she had no money in this world she could make jewels with her magic, her preferred one being emerald. She was not certain an emerald would be worth here, but she could build entire buildings made of it and that must be worth something.

She paused as she saw a large grouping of students form in the court. She frowned as she examined their ahead-of-their-time uniform.

While it was appropriate by her world's standards, it was centuries, or maybe thousands in this world's case, ahead of its time. She had thought a early renaissance society frowned upon the baring of too much flesh on woman. Skirts above the knee were considered scandalous and inappropriate for a lady of this period.

But now that she thought about it... There did not seem to be a lot of the sexism that permeated her world in this one. She supposed that it could have somehow contributed to this type of clothing being appropriate.

"Is there some sort of event today?" de Orleans asked in curiosity towards the gathering.

"Um... No, I am not aware of any being scheduled." the maid hesitantly said in worry.

"Shall we go watch then?" de Orleans offered Patchouli. She would be lying if she was not interested in seeing what the commotion was. But then she doubted that a spectacle made from students of a rudimentary magic school would be all that impressive.

Patchouli shrugged as answer, whether they went or not did not really matter that much. "It does not matter to me."

That was enough of an answer for de Orleans who asked the maid to lead them through the quickest route to the gathering. It seems she was far more interested.

It was when they drew closer that she could see why. She was fairly certain that that was Tabitha in the crowd there. The rather small dragon standing on all fours by her side was a new sight.

It was when she saw a flourish of red hair next to Tabitha that she began to opt out of this, quickly slowing down to stay at the back. The last thing she wanted was the girl to repeat the same comments where so many could hear.

Many a student gave a look of scorn at the maid leading them nervously navigated her way to the forefront of the crowd. This was turned into surprise when they saw Josette who was essentially a Tabitha look alike and they politely moved aside when they finally realized that they were in fact guests of the academy.

"A duel." Patchouli concluded when they reached the inner part of the crude ring of students. Standing in the center was a blond boy who seemed to give off an aura of arrogance, and not the good kind if that was possible.

"It is. I would have thought duels between students would have been banned." de Orleans commented as the maid that led them shyly placed herself between them.

Patchouli agreed with that sentiment. They were in a facility where adolescent were taught to use their volatile magic responsibly. As such the chances of them doing exactly that were predictably low. She could only imagine how much damage an adolescent with a damaged ego could do.

Oh wait... She already knew thanks to a certain two individuals. At least those two were courteous enough to host a party afterwards for all the trouble. She doubted that these nobles present would do the same.

"I assume the blond flower will be fighting. So where is the other fighter?" Patchouli blandly asked a rhetorical question.

It appeared that the flower heard her and misinterpreted her words as a compliment as he winked at her.

...

She felt disturbed by the action and will endeavor to cleanse it from her memory.

"I can't tell whether that was a compliment or insult." de Orleans noted as her eyes seemingly scanned the crowd.

"The latter." Patchouli said and noted, with amusement, that the wall flower wilted as he eavesdropped on them.

A flower maybe pretty to look at but place it under pressure and it broke exceedingly easily. Unless it was those in the Forest of Magic; but those could be explained by all the magic in the soil, roots, leaves and well, just about everywhere there.

A sudden round of chatter inclined her to turn her head to see, who she supposed was the opponent/challenger.

Dressed in what she supposed was the girl's uniform and sporting bright pink hair, she did not look all the intimidating. But then, neither did half the residents of Gensokyo but they were plenty powerful.

Behind her was a black haired maid, not too unlike the one that guided them here, but was far younger.

The two of them seemed to be trying to persuade the one at the forefront of something. And that person was…

…Well that was an interesting twist.

"Unless the flower is some unimaginable prodigy; he has lost." Patchouli stated as a fact.

"How are you certain of that?" Josette asked, not understanding her reasoning. Of course, the woman in question appeared normal to everyone else but even she did not know her full power.

Danmaku meant no one was ever fighting at full power and it was a requirement to leave some opening to be defeated. Of course, with those rules lifted; it would be interesting to see.

"She is from my world and I am quite friendly with her." Patchouli answered.

"Do you mean that she's one of those who don't find the creation of a small sun impressive?" she recalled from a previous conversation.

"She's not that level yet. I suppose she is somewhere around my level." Patchouli replied after some thought. Unless she was holding back far more than she knew, she was not one the same level of Gods and Yakumo just yet. She would be more on her level; about midway.

"Around your level…" de Orleans let that sink in before giving a nod to her prediction, her eyes now twinkling with sympathy to the blond noble. "Do you mean she can also shoot small suns?"

"No. Her specialty is something else." Patchouli replied. "Though she could very well likely bring out a comparable amount of explosive power."

She glanced with impunity at the blond flower that seemed so confident in his victory. She did not know why he was dueling with someone like her but he must either have been mad enough to challenge her or must have done something exceedingly dumb to have provoked someone that was generally mild mannered. "This will be painful to watch."

* * *

**Finally decided that Saito would too dull even if he would still make sense since him and Patche are both from Earth. Instead I'm using someone else and it is in fact not Youmu or her yet to be seen grandpa. Being the only one using swords, aside from the forgotten Yumeko, that would be too obvious. I will hopefully enjoy writing the next chapter.**


	12. Act XII

**A holiday here so I spent half the day playing Arma and the rest writing this. A productive day all in all. Also this is my first time trying to write a fight scene. I hope it was okay. Also I probably shouldn't have mentioned a sword in the previous chapter. I just associated Gandalfr with a sword… Derflinger and all…**

* * *

A blond woman headed towards the Vestri court, where the duel was to take place. At a far glance she would appear like a doll in a blue dress and white shawl. But on closer inspection, you would see that she was a merely a beautiful young woman whose real age one will never be sure of.

She briskly walked to the Vestri court, her master trailed behind her trying to convince her that fighting a noble was suicide. She of course, paid not heed to her. Her master wasn't worth listening to at this point.

First impression was a very important thing and should be handled with care. Her summoning she could accept. She had had friends in Makai that were summoned before and they sometimes returned stronger and with interesting tales to tell. She had naively thought that it would be an interesting experience to be a familiar at first.

But that illusion was now shattered. But her master seemed to be outright trying to make sure that their relationship, between master and familiar, was a bad as possible.

First it was the hay bed. Despite her insistence that such a bed was not suitable, her master had taken to calling her a dog and even treated her like she was some sort of domestic animal, insisting that a hay bed was already more than she deserved.

She had thus taken to sleeping with the servants. They were far more welcoming than her master and she had given them a puppet show in gratitude much to their delight. The head chef, Marteau, was an interesting man and had agreed to feed her in return for some performances with her dolls when the servants had their very late dinner.

Of course, her master was more than displeased with her disobedience and had tried to discipline her with a whip. A whip!

She, like most people, did not take well to that and had simply walked out on her master rather than simply let the pink haired girl beat her for independent action. Only a weak minded idiot or a slave would just stand there and let some stranger whip them.

It was disrespectful and a familiar wasn't supposed to disobey their master, she knew that. But a familiar and master were also meant to have respect for each other and right now the girl was doing nothing to win her respect but was doing stellar at earning her dislike and disdain. She would not have had to do that if she had simply treated her like she intelligent sentient being rather than a dumb dog.

Thus the blame firmly lay with her. The one that insisting on being unreasonable and treating her like she was less than human.

She had tried to be reasonable, telling the girl that she would willingly help her if she would just be more respectful and polite with her orders. But even in the face of logic, the girl firmly wanted her to be a nothing more than a glorified pet, unable to do even the slightest thing without her permission, a broken slave in all but name.

And the other so called nobles here were no better. She had saw a boasting blond boy drop a glass bottle, that somehow didn't break or crack on impact, and had politely tried to return it to him, as was the right thing to do.

How was she to have known that he was cheating with two other female students? Of course, instead of taking the blame for such disgraceful behavior, he had instead blamed her for all of it.

How did that even make sense? She was certainly not the one that had told him to go court two girls at once.

Of course, when she pointed this out, it had somehow insulted his honor and he insisted on teaching her to learn some respect. This cumulated to the point where he wanted a duel with her to somehow regain his lost honor.

She didn't understand how him fighting her would regain his honor, but she accepted regardless. Fights were started in Gensokyo for far less reasons and she was not shy of engaging in them.

Of course though, this wasn't Gensokyo so she didn't have to purposely leave openings for him to exploit. So the fight here was certainly going to much more dangerous. But at the same time, she didn't have to purposefully leave openings for someone to exploit, also making her more dangerous.

She watched in disdain the blond boy wave his arms around in theatrics. So far nothing he showed spoke of him being all that capable. This should be an easy win.

"Gentlemen! It's a duel! Myself against the Zero's sideshow!" Guiche shouted out to the crowd of students. In response, they gave a loud cheer, eager to see blood.

"Guiche's going to duel! His opponent is going to be Louise's sideshow." Someone in the crowd hooted. She in turn stayed quiet, ignoring the jibe. She wasn't that easily provoked.

She instead stood calmly opposite Guiche in the ring, watching him intently. Guiche gave another wave before acknowledging her.

"First of all, I commend you for coming here instead of running away!" Guiche acknowledged as he twirled that annoying rose of his around.

"There's no need for that. Defeating you would hardly be an achievement for me." She remarked.

Guiche's posture twitched at the insult but didn't lose his confident posture. His face showed slight signs of irritation and maybe anger.

"You should learn respect your betters." He remarked as he held his rose out.

"I will when you're worth respecting." She calmly replied, preparing her own magic.

Again, the blond student twitched at the insult but didn't respond. Doing so would lower himself to the commoners level.

Smiling, he flicked his rose, shedding a single petal that gently glided to the ground. It glowed slightly before reforming itself into a distinct female form. Made entirely of bronze, it had elaborate carvings onto its skin… armor?

"I forgot to mention commoner. My Runic Name is 'Bronze'. Guiche the Bronze. My Valkyrie shall be your opponent." Guiche said confidently in his ability to win. At his words, his Valkyrie prepared itself to attack

"Let's go, Shanghai." She uttered as her doll glided forward. The small blond doll, near identical in appearance to its master, glided in front of her master; holding its arms out protectively in front of its Alice.

One doll against his bronze golem. It should be fair enough.

"A puppet! Is that all you got?" Guiche laughed at the ludicrous sight. By the Founder, there was no way that the common entertainer was really thinking of fighting him with a doll.

Snickering spread across the students as they watched the display. At the back there was some student that seemed to taking bets on who would win. From the sounds of it, the odds were against her.

"Familiar! Are you crazy!" her pink haired master shouted angrily from the sidelines. "Why are you using a doll?!"

"My name is Alice Margatroid. Not 'Familiar." She reminded yet again. Her master bristled under the disrespect that her familiar was showing her. "And as to why? You'll see."

She then turned to the blonde who was still laughing, confident in his victory. "Are we starting?"

"Eager to lose sideshow?" he mocked. Seeing no reaction, only her cold bored face, he quickly shouted to start. "Then let us duel!"

His Valkurie burst from its position, leaving a cloud of dust as an after trail. It rushed straight toward the puppeteer and her doll, intent on destroying the doll and beating the commoner behind it.

In response, the doll held both its tiny arms out in a way that looked like it was trying to push the air. Guiche snickered again at the sight.

It happened in an instant. A red glow quickly generated from the outstretched palms of the doll to fire off a powerful beam of red light that struck the golem head on. It passed through the golem unhindered, getting through whatever resistance the bronze may have in an instant, leaving the golem only with its lower body.

The golem teetered for a bit before collapsing, a plume of dust and dirt was shot up as its heavy body

The crowd was in silence now, awed by what they saw. The cute doll that they had thought harmless had just fired off a magical blast far above what a student could manage. Doubt began to form as Alice stared down at Guiche.

"I told you she would win." Alice heard a familiar voice say. Turning to the voice, she saw a familiar face that had escaped her attention because of her new outfit.

"Patchouli?" Alice asked in surprise. This was where the resident witch of Scarlet Devil Mansion disappeared off to.

"Yes." Patchouli gave a curt answer, a small smile forming on her lips. "It is surprising to see you here."

"I could say the same." Alice responded with her own smile. It was good to see a friend in an alien world but what were the chances that two magicians from the same home would be summoned to the same world?

"It's not over yet commoner!" Guiche yelled suddenly. Alice turned her attention back to the blond was surprised to see that he was now flanked by another ten golems, this time wield a variety of weapons.

"A bit unfair to summon so many while I wasn't paying attention." Alice noted calmly as Shanghai flew back to hover over her shoulder. What happened to his 'honor' and all that?

"Taking advantage of an opponent's moment of distraction is a fair tactic! Talking isn't a free action!" Guiche shouted as he waved for Valkyries to attack. In response they formed a line formation in front of him, preparing themselves to launch forward to attack like their predecessor.

In the time that Guiche had said that, a small army of dolls had appeared around Alice. They were created by Alice and Alice loved them dearly. So they would protect Alice until death or destruction.

Two rows of dolls floated gently in front of Alice. They were different to Shanghai in that they were all holding muskets and had a miniature cavalier hat atop their heads. They were authentic musketeers to the point that they even had a ramrod and powder flask.

Further in front were two squads of dolls. One wielding broadswords and a round shield while the other long halberds in doll size. Despite them looking like toys, they were no less dangerous than real weapons.

By all rights, dolls should not be possible of even holding these weapons far heavier than themselves. But then, neither should they be able to form a battle line with ranged at the back and melee at the forefront.

"That's true." Alice admitted as she maneuvered her dolls to attack. Talking wasn't a free action. As interesting as it looks in books, it wasn't possible to have a small monologue in a fight without the opponent exploiting it. That was why no one really talked during a Danmaku battle. The majority of Youkai just weren't courteous enough to let someone speak during a fight.

It was a ridiculous sight, a small army of small cute dolls wielding assorted weapons facing ten metal golems supposedly meant for war.

The musketeer dolls fired their first volley in cohesion, unleashing a small barrage of small energy blasts that exploded on impact. While their equipment was authentic and looked identical to what musketeers used, it was simply impossible to mass produce enough lead balls for ammunition. Instead she just let them fire magic and go through the lengthy reload process for authenticity.

Their small muskets flashed yellow as the small blue bullets were fired. They sped towards the advancing Valkyries, leaving a glistening trail behind them.

The first wave hit the Valkyrie's dead on. The Valkyrie's who were unfortunately just a little bit faster than their brethren took the brunt of the attack, miniature explosions chipping away at their frame. Shards of bronze were splintered off from the small explosive blasts that tore into them.

The dolls took to reload their muskets, effectively pouring nothing into their muskets and making only the motion of placing a ball into their miniature muskets before ramming them in.

Meanwhile as the Valkyries faltered, the ones behind them rushed past them; their weapons raised and pulled back to strike at the mass of dolls. Bronze met steel as the Valkyrie's weapons met those of the dolls.

The Valkyries struggled to hit their smaller counterparts as they clumsily swung at them with their weapons. In contrast, the smaller dolls were slowly chopping down the golems with their much smaller weapons. Flashing blurs as Alice made their attacks as flashy as possible on reflex, a byproduct of Danmaku.

Guiche sweated as his Valkyries repeatedly missed the sleeker and faster dolls, this was clearly not going the way he wanted. His Valkyries were being swarmed by the dolls, which no longer looked so harmless and cute with all the dangerous weapons they were holding.

A doll did a full spin with her halberd, a blue blur as she swung it at full force into a Valkyrie. The blow sent the entire top torso of the Valkyrie sailing towards Guiche. The blond took a moment to register the projectile before hurriedly dodging to the right, falling to his knees in the process.

In this moment of distraction, Guiche's control on his golems slipped. At this moment, Alice's dolls pounced on the Valkyries.

A doll with a halberd went low and cut down a Valkyrie's lower joints, sending it down to one knee. The Valkyrie retaliated by swinging its blade downward, catching the doll by its arm and tearing it off and making the doll lose its grip on its weapon.

Before the Valkyrie could finish the doll off but destroying it, Alice maneuvered a second doll that swung its halberd at the Valkyrie's head, decapitating the automaton. The bronze construct fell to pieces as its head rolled around on the dirt floor.

At the same time; a group of five dolls, wielding blades, formed into a triangle and charged forward, the tips of their weapons glowed a blue aura as they released a powerful blast as they struck a Valkyrie in sync. The resounding blast shot the Valkyrie to land near Guiche back in pieces.

Guiche ducked his head as the Valkyrie landed, missing him by a bead. His face was fill of fear now as he painstakingly got back onto his knees to fight.

Alice smiled as she manipulated her dolls movements while Shanghai continued to hover around her, a last defense in the unlikely scenario that Guiche breaches her line of dolls. Getting her to contribute to the fight would tip the odds in her favor too much. Her average dolls would be more than enough for now.

And the conflict between her dolls should be over soon. It was clear that she was far more proficient at micromanaging her dolls than he was at controlling his golems. He seemed to be struggling and failing at moving his own golems fluidly.

"Stop holding back and finish this already. We have much to catch up on." Patchouli nonchalantly interrupted the fight. Many of the onlookers looked at her in surprise at what she implied. The puppeteer was dominating the fight and she was holding back?

Alice let out a disappointed sigh. It seems that she was the only one who could appreciate that it was immensely more satisfying to win with skill and strategy rather than just overwhelming them with mass lasers and magic blasts. Still, she also wanted to talk with Patchouli about this whole mess.

Perhaps she had some way to get off this world. With a master like Louise, she wasn't sure how long she would stay sane without beating the girl to the ground.

And she was right. This was dragging on… She glared at Guiche who visibly gulped underneath her eyes. She had may as well finish this.

The dolls suddenly let up their assault, flying back to shelter behind the false doll musketeers; the three damaged Valkyries remained immobile during this, likely because Guiche was surprised by the sudden retreat. He quickly regained the initiative and sent his Valkyries forward again, this time straight to Alice; hoping for a decisive blow.

Alice smiled as she moved the musket dolls into a line position again. It was time to finish this.

What she was going to do would be reminiscence of volley fire, though instead of crouching after firing, she maneuvered her dolls downward allowing the next rank to fire.

The combined fire ripped through the remaining Valkyries, their bronze bodies unable to withstand the attack. Their bodies were blown apart by the projectiles and they faded away into magic blocks.

Only one was left awkwardly lying on the ground with one leg and half an arm as Guiche desperately tried to remake it and get it back up. It was for naught, however as the second volley encompassed it completely, leaving only an assortment of small craters in the aftermath.

Guiche blanched as the last of his Valkyries fell apart. His face was white as all the dolls eerily turned their attention to Guiche, their aquamarine eyes boring into him.

Out of roses and clearly out of his league, he looked down to reach for his second wand that he kept in the rare case that he would run out of roses. He was never happier to follow his father's advice of having a spare wand like today.

"Hiiii-"he screeched as he brought his head back up. By the time he had it out, he was surrounded by the dolls. Steel weapons only a hair's width away from his vulnerable neck. The musketeer dolls even had all their muskets pointed at his head. The message was rather clear.

"I clearly control my dolls better than you, your golems." Alice stated as she walked over to Guiche. The dolls shifted their weapons, tightening the lock they had on the blonde's neck. "And I think I'm the winner too, correct?"

"Y…Yes! Yes!" Guiche wailed as he quickly dropped his wand in fear. This wasn't supposed to happen. The commoner entertainer wasn't supposed to be some sort of mage. She couldn't have been hiding all those dolls too. It was impossible.

But there was one thing he knew was true. And that was that he definitely did not want to die. He didn't want to die so young. "I… I giv… Give up!"

* * *

**I hope this was good, otherwise do please review and advise how I could do this better. Also Alice having dolls using muskets isn't all that strange. I've seen them with tanks and modern assault rifles before.**

**Nothing important to say down here. So here's a rather overused joke. Can you imagine what Sakuya would do if she bought an IPad. I imagine she would use it to digitally make her bre- 'knifed in the face'**


	13. Act XIII

**Again not too sure of OOC. **

* * *

"So this was where you ended up Patchouli. You've been missing for a week." Alice remarked as she recalled the rest of her small doll army. The small girls dissipating with brilliant effects as Alice walked over to Patchouli.

A week? She had been here far longer than a single week. So the time was different between the dimensions. Well that was somewhat of a relief.

The closer she got, the further away that most the other students drew away; typical human behavior. They would be afraid of the unknown until they could somehow rationalize it with their minds. She supposed that they would eventually reach the correct conclusion that Alice was a magician.

"So it seems." Patchouli answered as she looked at the Seven-Colored Puppeteer. "I suppose you were brought along in the same manner."

"A green portal that opens beneath you?" Alice inquired, proving that the exact same summoning spell was used; even the manner in which the portal abducted them was the same.

"That is correct." Patchouli replied.

Josette shifted awkwardly beside Patchouli, feeling out of place. Patchouli glanced at her and acknowledged her discomfort. Was the girl waiting for her permission to introduce herself?

Alice noticed the same and did a small curtsy as she introduced herself. "Waiting for Patchouli to introduce you will take a while. My name is Alice Margatroid, and you are?"

Was de Orleans waiting for her to introduce her? Why did not she not simply ask?

"Ah, I am Josette de Orleans, an assistant to lady Patchouli." de Orleans returned the gesture.

Alice turned to Patchouli at the mention of assistant. "Koakuma isn't going to like being replaced."

"It's only temporary." Patchouli calmly replied. As useful as de Orleans could occasionally be, she could not replace Koakuma who, like her, knew the library off by heart. Josette would be an old lady by the time she could do the same, in which she would be of little help in the library anyway.

"I'm sure." Alice responded in a tone to which Patchouli was sure was a bait to draw her in.

"Back on topic, what is the state of affairs in the Scarlet Devil Mansion?" Patchouli started, if it was only a week, then perhaps the damage to her library was not so great yet.

"Well… Remilia's seems a bit more anxious nowadays and Koakuma… she's a bit a wreck." Alice answered.

Patchouli nodded in understanding. Remilia would maintain her usual attitude while secretly trying to look for her. As for Koakuma… she needed to hurry and find a way back before the devil does something stupid.

"Oh, and you don't need to worry about the library." Alice reassured her.

"And why is that?" Patchouli asked apprehensively. She would have thought that the bumpkin magician would be overjoyed at her being missing. Koakuma certainly could not stop her.

"Marisa isn't going to be stealing things. She isn't the type of person to take things from someone when they can't fight back." Alice happily told her.

"That is hardly a good thing regardless." Patchouli glumly noted. It was bad to steal books when she was not there but it completely fine to steal them when she was there. That makes no sense and would have confused her if she was not already accustomed to the lack of common sense in Gensokyo. "That idiot magi-"

"Tabitha! So that's where you ended up!"

Patchouli turned to see Tabitha, standing beside Josette half way through passing some sort of note across. When did the girl get there? And she had to ask de Orleans what the note was about later.

And that voice. Patchouli blinked when she saw that red haired girl was heading towards them, her chest distractingly bouncing everywhere in her loosely tied shirt. How did she go around without having heavy back pains with such a large cleavage?

As the red haired girl drew closer, she saw Patchouli and Josette and opened her mouth to _greet_ them. "Oh, it's lover-"

Patchouli reacted instantly and fired a 'mute' spell at the girl. The perfect spell when someone became too annoying to listen to; mostly used on Marisa Kirisame and on the rare occasion, Koakuma. In this case, Alice did not need to hear the garbage that the girl would, without doubt, throw out from her mouth.

Kirche stopped in her tracks as she realized that no noise was coming out of her. She tested her no silent voice for a few moments before drawing her wand and actively try to cancel out the spell.

Tabitha glanced between the two of them and sighed. She gave a slight nod to Josette before hurrying off to help release Kirche from her mute spell. She would fail without doubt, but the spell was not permanent. Unlike Kirisame, the girl did not know how to cancel out her spells; it will take a day or two for it to wear off eventually.

"What was that abou-" Alice curiously questioned before Patchouli bluntly interrupted.

"Nothing." Patchouli tried to cut the bud before it grew out of hand.

"Something about a lover-" Alice insisted on trying to grow the bud.

"If your breath a word of this to the Tengu; then I will rescind your access to the library." Patchouli coldly threatened as she stomped on the small growing bud.

As predicted, Alice gave up on the subject. Being unable to freely access the largest repository of knowledge in Gensokyo would be a huge hamper to any magician. And Patchouli very much doubted that Alice would sneak in like Kirisame.

"So, did I miss anything of importance?" Patchouli asked, veering the subject away.

"Well, there was a party in heaven and another in the Old Hell." Alice answered, recalling the drinking parties that the denizens of Gensokyou regularly engaged in.

"The celestials are not great cooks anyway and I dislike venturing into the Old Hell." Patchouli said with some distaste. The party after the Scarlet Weather incident on the heavens had shown that the food that the celestials made was… inadequate. And Old Hell had Oni in it. She would greatly prefer to not be within their immediate proximity.

"They got a little better." Alice admitted that the quality of food in heaven was improving. "Anyway, where's your master?"

"Where is yours?" Patchouli reflected, indeed she could not see the pink haired girl that she assumed was Alice's summoner.

"Oh, she's ove- where did she go?" Alice asked in confusion as she turned to see her master to only fail at locating her with her eyes. Where did she go?

* * *

"Interesting…" Colbert said as he tore his eyes away from the mirror of far seeing.

"Indeed... They're both wearing bloomers. Those went out of fashion so long ago." Osmond agreed, nodding his head sagely.

"Ye- Wait, what?" Colbert did a double take as he stared at the headmaster in surprise. "How did you even see that?"

"Ho, ho, ho don't underestimate me just because I'm getting old. I'm far from senile just yet." The headmaster heartily laughed, not answering the question at all and not the least concerned about his breach of privacy.

Colbert resisted the urge to shake his head in disappointment. This was a motion that was becoming harder and harder whenever he met with his superior.

"That the puppeteer turned out to be a mage. This makes it more complicated." Colbert said as softly nudged Old Osmond away from the mirror. He didn't know how the old man managed to peek up their dresses, but he certainly would not let him do so any longer than necessary.

"Ah, yes. It is indeed strange." Osmond agreed, bobbing his head forward in agreement.

"And the magic she used. I don't recognize it at all." Colbert continued.

"Ah, yes. It is indeed strange." Osmond agreed, bobbing his head forward in agreement.

"And that Gallian said she was holding back too. How strong is she really?" Colbert speculated. She was clearly not trying against Gramont, but he was only a dot class. That was hardly a testament to how powerful she could be if she was trying.

"Hrmmm." Osmond grunted in agreement.

"We have to report this to the palace." Colbert urged Osmond. Such a person with strange magic, that was obviously not the same as theirs, had to be made known to the palace.

"Hrm. I agree for different reasons." Osmond said his tone more serious now.

"Different reasons?" Colbert asked in confusion.

"As you said; the Gallian knows who she was." Osmond warily said.

It took a moment before Colbert understood what Old Osmond was reserved about. One of the two visiting Gallian nobles knew who she was. Alice Margatroid was clearly a mage and was known to a Gallian mage. The chance that she was a Gallian noble was high.

But that also meant that Miss Valliere had summoned a Gallian noble. Such a thing could be taken as a kidnapping of a foreign noble. The consequences of such would be…

"The two Gallians are returning to Tristainia by the end of the day. We have no legal way to stop them." Osmond said coldly.

Colbert nodded grimly in understanding. The two could likely go the palace and bring this case to the Royal court. They were justified to do so. Such a meeting would likely cause a political incident with Tristain's larger neighbor to the south and Tristain needed allies not enemies.

Reconquista's next target was Tristian, everyone could tell that. It was only by the Founder's grace and the resolution of the remaining loyalists under King James Tudor that Reconquista was not ready yet.

Romalia was not going to intervene, as evidence by Albion. And Tristain could not stand alone against Reconquista. It needed Germania or Gallia to be willing to stand behind them.

"Knowing those Court Advisors; they're going to deny it and that might cause a war. One that Tristain cannot afford." Osmond continued as he took to transcribing a message.

"A war is a bit extreme isn't it?" Colbert asked skeptically. This could be sorted out without war, couldn't it?

"Wars have been fought for dumber reasons." Osmond rebuked. "Look at the crusades. We've had tons of them before and gained next to nothing from the Elves. Has that stopped us from starting them?"

Colbert shook his head sheepishly. That was true at least. Hundreds of thousands of human deaths in the Crusades and only small tracks of territory that the Elves didn't care about to show for it. The Church still regularly called for a Crusade once every life time.

"I want you to pass this along to their Royal highnesses. They should be cooler headed than those warmongers." Osmond passed his note over to Colbert.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. No more needs to know about this than necessary. And you're one of the few I trust here."

"Ah… I… um… honored."

"I want to leave immediately. It should give you a head start ahead of the Gallians and give some time for the palace to prepare for them." Old Osmond commanded.

"Yessir." Colbert said as he hurriedly rushed out of the room.

* * *

In the dark clouds of night a small squadron of ships slithered through the clouds where no one could see them. There was no light visible from the outside, their crews adamant on staying as stealthy as possible.

Tielson nervously sat on the bench with the rest of the 2nd company of the 7st Volunteer Battalion. He constantly checked his musket was properly primed and loaded, looking for any imperfection to keep his mind away from the coming fight.

"Chickening out now Teil?" the lieutenant of his company said as he plopped down onto the bench beside him, a balding man who endlessly self-praised his amazing accuracy with a musket. "You wanna run home to mama now?"

"Shut up." Teilson snapped back at the older man, who only laughed in response. The officer was a volunteer just like him, and had wasted no time in getting to know everyone that he would be commanding in his company. Most of it was insults and jokes and it was damn distracting.

"Ah, don't feel bad. Half these idiots here are scared out of the minds right now." The man loudly replied, making sure that all his nervous subordinates could hear his word, their heads turning to meet their officer.

"Aren't you?" Tielson harshly retorted. There was a reason why their force was made up of volunteers. Sir Cromwell and the captain leading their vanguard had admitted it themselves; the chances of them leaving this alive were slim at best.

But if it worked…

"Me? 'Course I am." The man admitted without shame. "Dying in glory and all ain't all that appealing to me, personally."

"Then why are you here?" another man shouted from across the room. There were grunts of from everyone else as they too wanted to know that answer.

"Why are you lot here?" the officer rebuked, staring the man who shouted out in the eye. "Cause it seems; you guys are just as stupid as me in joining this death row."

No one laughed at the grim joke. Being reminded of what was coming wasn't all that great.

Teilson twitched in surprise, as the lieutenant shifted to pull out a crude picture of a bland looking woman. Waving it around, he showed it to the entire room of men. "This is my beautiful wife. She just gave me a wonderful daughter, you know? …I suppose you all have something like this with you."

Tielson nodded slightly, his hand moving to feel the metal necklace around his neck He didn't have a picture but his ma and pa had given him this to remember them with and had made him promise that he would bring it back with him. He didn't think he could keep that promise anymore.

"Then you know why I'm here." the lieutenant said softly, the others straining their heads to pick up his words. "I don't care about Reconquista. But Cromwell right about one thing… those damn foreign Royals won't leave Albion alone for long. Even with damned James dead."

Teilson nodded more resolutely this time. Eventually, the other Royalist kingdoms would try to take back Albion. And if they did, they would without doubt punish the people of Albion for killing the Tudors. Already damaged by the rulership of the Tudors, a foreign military occupation would cripple Albion to the point of no return.

Life was already hard under the old government. If the barbaric Germanics or the Gallians were to take over, they would take back all the resources they lost in the invasion from the people… he didn't want ma and pa to struggle even more to feed all his siblings.

So… Albion had to strike first.

"I don't want my kid to live in a world where she'll have to live in fear every day. Wondering when the next meal will be? Whether a foreign soldier will take it out on her tonight?" the lieutenant said, his voice cracking slightly.

The older man took a deep breath to calm his voice. When he was done with that, his tone was now deathly grim. "So yeah, I'm scared of dying."

"But what'll happen to Albion if we fail?" the officer let the question remain unanswered. Tielson could only imagine his family home being sacked while his family was slaughtered like pigs in their own burning land.

His ma… his pa… his little sisters and brothers. Their faces staring at him as he could only watch the light in their eyes die out as they bled on the ground.

"Yeah…" Lieutenant Savion said as he seemingly read their minds. "Dying's scary. But I'm more afraid of that."

"For Reconquista..." Someone mumbled aloud.

"Screw Reconquista." Savion grunted in disapproval at the words. "This if for Albion."

No one said anything after that. There was nothing left to say.

* * *

**I might have to make this M considering what I'm planning to write for the next chapter. Also I'm no military genius so if anyone more familiar with strategy could they please PM me and help me check if what I planning Reconquista to do is plausible and reasonably competent.**


	14. Act XIV

**Note: Revised Act XII. I changed a chapter to make things hopefully flow smoother. To those who don't want to reread, its essentially makes Alice wants to go home more and a bit more hostile to Louise for her treatment, and has Guiche hit Shanghai causing Alice to solve things the way they usually do in Touhou.**

**I hope I'm not getting the roman numerals wrong. I shouldn't have used them but kept going for consistency. :P**

* * *

"Recalled?" Josette questioned. She was a bit perturbed that de Gallia had chosen to send a missive calling for them to immediately return to Gallia. It was unlike him to leave things half finished.

"That is correct." The disguised knight of the Northern Parterre confirmed, handing her the coded missive which had no details added to it outside the exact orders to return to Gallia.

"For what reasons?" she asked the knight. The king never did things without a reason. At times; his intentions was easily transparent. But mostly it was for nigh impossible to properly understand what he was wanted and why he did things.

"The message did not specify." The knight curtly said. Josette suppressed a frown. So there wasn't any more information than the note to go by.

Reading the note, her frown finally came through. They were to abandon the mission and return to Gallia immediately. This was an unusually short and brief note for the King. It likely meant that this was done in a hurry.

So something had spook the King enough to recall the two back. Josette knew that he considered her useful but ultimately expendable. But Patchouli was not. Powerful mages took meaningful amounts of time and resources to cultivate. And she was certain there was no human mage that could match her in Halkegenia.

But that meant that the King needed her back in Gallia and she doubted it was for her advice. No, he wanted her power nearby for something.

That meant there was a threat. But, who?

Reconquista was still fighting with King James and the remaining royalists. And Gallia was their greatest ally and supplier, albeit in secret. They couldn't possibly be thinking of attacking Gallia.

Tristain? No, that was a stupid and illogical thought. Tristain was a kingdom that more often than not avoided wars and used political means and allies to fight their battles.

She doubted that it was Germania. If they posed a military threat then they would have to pass Tristain first of which case it was impossible to hide an army of the size needed to invade Gallia. And the last she heard of Germania was that it was still fragmented and that even the Emperor's position was currently shaky.

A war would help solidify it, but then it should be Reconquista; the target that no noble liked. Attacking Gallia, its possible equal militarily as a means to restore unity would be a questionable move.

No, if there was a threat then it was Romalia. Even she wasn't sure exactly what the King's vendetta against the Church was but she could tell that he greatly hated them for something. But would Romalia risk leaving its border to the Elves open while it pursued war with Gallia. Unlikely considering that it was Romalia she was thinking about.

That meant it had to be rebels. A feeling of dread overwhelmed her for a moment as she thought of the worse. Had her own supporters been found? If a single one spoke, then the King would have her executed on the spot.

No… she calmed herself down as she started to rationally think about it. If that was the case then he would have had the knight kill her here and now.

But what if he did know. This could all be some ploy to make her feel secure and safe about her plot only to cruelly surprise her back in Gallia. It was certainly something she could imagine him doing.

"We will stay for now." Patchouli stated, looking at the knight in a way that dared him to challenge this. Her eyes narrowed in a dark stare.

Josette glanced at the purple haired woman. It was clear that she was far more interested in being with her friend than the Academy's library. The entire day was spent talking with some tea from the servants. The library wasn't even mentioned again.

She couldn't say that it was a bad thing though. There was much she had learned from their conversations. Useful things and strange things.

Patchouli's friend: Alice. Her master was without doubt the void user of Tristain and this was only confirmed with the note that Cha- …Tabitha had given her. A rather late report on Miss Valliere.

Alice did not share a good relation to the girl, definitely worse than the one Patchouli had with the King.

And a lot of rather strange details of their homeland: Gensokoyo.

Fights between beings where thousands of dangerous magic bullets was thrown around were normal and happened frequiently.

This Marisa was a thief of epic proportions with her willingness to steal from Patchouli.

There was a maid that could stop time and control space.

And that Patchouli apparently lived with a devil that could control the red strings of fate and a vampire that could destroy even the world if she wanted to.

Indeed strange things. She wasn't certain as to whether they were joking or if it was all true. To avoid mental complications she just accepted that they were real and just not think on it again.

"The King's orders are absolute." The knight said, not flinching under Patchouli's stare. He probably things he's seen more terrifying things than a young woman. May the Founder watch over his soul.

"Who was placed in charge of this mission?" Patchouli turned to ask her suddenly. Her expression showing that she already suspected the answer despite Josette never actually telling her.

Josette responded immediately. "Lady Patchouli was designated to lead this venture." A misstep by the King in hindsight.

The knight did not budge. "The message from the King directly supersedes this." He insisted out of loyalty.

Patchouli opened her hand for the latter that Josette was holding. Suspecting what she was going to do, she pretended to uneasily hand it over for her cover's sake. She was a loyal servant of the King first, of course. How she appeared in front of a Knight of the Northern Parterre was especially important.

Patchouli took the sheet in hand and looked it over. The Knight closed his eyes as he too predicted what she was going to do. He was going to lose this.

The sheet went up in flames. The paper burned for an instant and left only a small trickle of ash, which Patchouli then crushed and let flow to the ground.

"The message failed to arrive. We will stay. Do not worry; this will benefit your precious King too. Is this alright?" Patchouli coldly reassured the knight. This time her tone was more threatening and she could have sworn that her eyes flashed red for a moment.

He could only reluctantly nod his head. There was no way he could prove her wrong until they returned to Gallia to which it would be pointless anyway.

"With your leave?" the knight said as he gave a single bow and left without a reply, obviously not liking the situation. The knights of the Northern Parterre were like this; loyal dogs keening to their master. Not surprising considering most of their upbringing.

As he closed the door to their room, Josette looked at Patchouli. The woman without a doubt had something planned that would benefit both her and her master.

"What are you planning?" she directly asked. There was no point in tiring subtlety. She already knew that Patchouli did not like listening to the embellished conversations with added words.

"Alice's master is the void user of Tristain… and de Gallia would want the void user don't you think?" she asked what might have been a rhetorical question.

Josette hesitated at the question. She honestly had no idea if he wanted the Tristain void user brought to him. She supposed he would… but assumptions were always a bad thing with the King. He tended to break them just for the sake of it.

"Alice wants to go back to Gensokyo, something I share. Two magicians working together is a powerful thing and the gateway to many discoveries." Patchouli said as she blankly looked at the wall in what she supposed was thought.

She wanted to go home. That was something she could sympathize with. But the King would likely not take this revelation that well. But then, she wasn't going to tell him so how was he to know?

"And de Gallia wants a void magician for who knows what." Patchouli continued as she contemplatively thought out a plan. "There is a way to satisfy us both."

"Could you please elaborate on that?" Josette politely asked. Patchouli tended to not explain things if she didn't ask first.

Patchouli held out her hand and four lines of different colors formed in her hands. Josette startled slightly before looking at the magic image. This was the first that Patchouli had used magic to simply explain things.

There were four sticks. One was purple, one: black, one: blue and one pink. Assuming that she was representing people, then the purple was Patchouli, the blue Alice and she supposed that the pink was Alice's master; the Valliere scion if she recalled. As for the black, she had no idea.

"It's simple in essence. We kill both Alice and her master." Patchouli stated with some thought.

…

"Pardon?" Josette asked in confusion.

There must be something else she hadn't explained yet. Killing the two people that you and the King wanted did not seem like a good plan.

"By kill, I mean fake their deaths while we take them to Gallia." Patchouli elaborated.

Josette nodded. Yes. That made far more sense than killing them both. Still, her first sentence could have been worded far better. Maybe she was trying to make a joke of some sort and she simply lacked the context to see why it was funny.

But that plan had major snags with it. But she should probably keep quiet while Patchouli finished explaining first.

"But I can't do it as Patchouli so I will take on the guise of Fonquet." Patchouli said as the purple stick merged with the black to leave a single black stick.

"I will attack the Academy under the pretense of trying to breach their vault. I will then take Alice and her master as hostage to escape and retreat to a safe distance; where I will then seemingly kill them both and throw off the search." Patchouli elaborated. In unison with her words, the black stick absorbed both the blue and pink sticks before the latter two reappeared.

"I will explain the plan to Alice and we will imprison her master where we can then hand her over to de Gallia. Me and Alice can then do research together and everyone benefits." Patchouli finished as the brief magic show dissipated into the air.

"Except the Valliere." Josette interjected. She very much doubted she would take well to being kidnapped and taken to a foreign country.

"The who?" Patchouli curiously questioned, apparently having forgotten Alice's master's name.

"Alice's master." Josette answered for her.

"Ah yes. Well, she did summon Alice and from her word; hasn't been treating her all that well. It could be poetic justice of sorts for her to suffer the same." Patchouli nonchalantly waved aside the issue.

"True… but would you incapacitate your friend. Did you not say that she was equal with you?" Josette pointed out.

"I will explain it to her tomorrow. She will likely go along with the plan as long as no one is seriously hurt in the process." Patchouli replied, guessing her friends reaction.

Seeing Josette's worried face, Patchouli spoke up. "Is there something else you would like to point out?"

"Ah yes. The Valliere are a powerful family in Tristain. If by any chance the Valliere escapes and reports this, it could mean war between Tristain and Gallia." Josette voiced her worry. Gallia did not need a war. It would have enough troubles of her own soon enough.

"Between me and Alice, do you really think she could escape?" Patchouli dully asked.

A student mage against a mage of great power and another mage which has comparable levels of power. No. The chances were unlikely but not impossible.

"I suppose there is a chance." Patchouli acknowledged as she saw he doubt. "I don't suppose this world has dye does it?"

"Die?" Josette asked in confusion. What was that and who would name something after dying?

Patchouli let out a sigh of disappointment. "I suppose not then. I guess I will invent it for you back in Gallia."

That was great and all but she still didn't know what Patchouli planned exactly. "What does die do?"

"It does not matter just yet. Anyhow, I can place… Valliere, was it? …under a spell for until we return to Gallia." Patchouli reassured her.

Josette nodded slowly. This was a plan, she supposed. Wait… "What about the Founder's Spell Book? Do you still want that?"

Patchouli thought on that a moment before slightly shaking her head. "No, I do not need a prayer book."

"Of course then. When do want to do this?" Josette nodded. She had thought so.

"Tomorrow night." Patchouli calmly replied.

* * *

**Thank you to whoever mentioned Morino Hon, it was an interesting read. And also much thanks to those who PMed me about Reconquista things: Demon Lord of Bob, the Pingman, SnEptUne and Artful Lounger who wrote about 2k words on the topic.**


	15. Act XV

**Was going to have Patche do the work but then decided that she probably wouldn't be ruthless enough to actually do what I have in mind. So who else is around that is perfectly willing to cross into the black? Rhetorical question. I don't think I like this chapter either, along with war; political things are way above my thought processes. I'm probably actually worse at it.**

* * *

Patchouli turned to face the door where the knocking was coming from. The knights were specifically told to not disturb them unless it was something of absolute importance.

She drudgingly opened the door to reveal a different knight from yesterday holding yet another missive.

"Another message from de Gallia?" Patchouli suspiciously asked, he could not have known about yesterday's conversation. Messages were not passed that quickly were they?

"No milady. It is from the Palace." the guard said, handing the note which bore the a red seal. She recognized the emblem to be that of Tristains.

Taking the message; she took a brief read and frowned when she finished. It likely did not bode well when a Royal family wanted to have a private meeting.

But what had she or de Orleans done to warrant Royal attention? Nothing that she could recall. Or did one of de Gallia's pretend knights get caught doing something they should not have.

"Good morning." de Orleans said as she came out of her room, looking refreshed and ready for the day. "What is that?"

"Morning." Patchouli returned the courtesy and handed over the missive to her assistant.

de Orleans scanned over the paper. Her face thoughtful as she carefully read over every last letter looking for some extra detail or hidden meaning.

"Does this mean we are going to the palace?" de Orleans asked her.

Patchouli reluctantly nodded in affirmative. Did she want to go? No. But she acknowledged the need to not anger the supreme political power in Tristain. There were all those possible political insults that she could accidently deliver if she did not go. Oh the joy of politics.

As the knight tried to close the door, Patchouli stopped putting a firm grip on the door. For sure, he could probably still close the door but he it was the message she put across that was important.

"Do you happen to know anything about this?" she asked the fake knight of the Southern Parterre.

"I'm afraid I do not comprehend milady." the knight admitted with surprise in his voice. So he did not read the letter or he was simply acting.

"Did you or your colleagues do something that would attract the local authorities' attention?" Patchouli reiterated her question, being more specific this time.

"No milady. We are fulfilling our roles of shining knights perfectly. We have stood guard and have not indulged in our usual work." the knight admitted what was likely the truth. She was not so sure.

"Very well. Then, please arrange for the carriage. We are going to the palace." Patchouli ordered before she promptly closed the door on him.

"Do you know?" Patchouli turned herself around to face de Orleans.

"No. But I can think of some probable reasons." she replied.

So could she. But Patchouli waved for the one more familiar with politics to go first.

"It could be regarding your position as Royal Advisor to the King. One would expect someone of your status to visit the palace and pay respects." de Orleans gave an entirely reasonable reason.

"So I insulted them?" Patchouli questioned.

"It seems likely." de Orleans admitted.

"Then why a private meeting rather an open one where they can try to humiliate me in their court?" Patchouli suspiciously questioned. If she had insulted them; then they would certainly try to return the favor. Real nobles were meant to be petty like that.

"I... I'm not sure." de Orleans fleetingly admitted. "I'm sure we will know when we arrive."

Patchouli nodded and sighed softly. "Depending on how long this will take, we might have to push back my plan."

"Lady Orleans and Lady Knowls." the guard intoned as he opened a sturdy oak door and let the two of them in.

The grand room was rather modest in comparison to of the palace. That did not mean that it was still not furnished with exquisite wood furniture and decorated with exotic silk. It was just that... there was less of it in this room. An open window decorated with beautiful curtains was guarded by another guard.

It was about in the center of the room where the person of interest waited patiently. The Princess of Tristain in full official regalia waiting on a round table with two empty chairs left for them.

Behind her were two men. To the left was a balding man in the wearing a robe that was clearly from the Academy. She had thought she had seen him in the Academy but didn't know his name.

By the right was a long grey haired man in a regal blue musketeer uniform. This man she knew: Captain Jean-Jacques Francis, Viscount of Wardes, an accomplished military man and a square class mage.

"Thank you for coming. Please, sit." Princess Henrietta welcomed and gestured for them to sit. Not bothering to introduce the two behind her.

Josette seated herself, giving a small bow beforehand. "Thank you for inviting us, your highness."

It was agreed beforehand that she would do most of the talking. By Patchouli's own admittance, her direct fashion of speaking was not suited for high level meetings like this without insuiating some sort of indirect insult. However the purple haired woman also reminded her that she will speak if she felt it was necessary.

The princess gave a slight nod in acknowledgement before going straight for business. "First, I would like to apologize on behalf of Tristain." The princess inclined her head slightly to emphasize her apology.

Josette widened her eyes slightly. This admission was not what she had expected. Now if only she knew what there was to apologize for?

"Thank you your, highness." Josette tested, giving out a neutral answer. Better to play along for now.

"We will, of course, work to return Lady Alice to Gallia." The princess said, with a slight tone of gratefulness.

'Lady Alice'? They thought that Alice Margatroid was some Gallian noble? Well, it would make a bit of sense since Alice is clearly foreign and could use magic. That two Gallians knew her might perpetuate this claim.

That… that would make things so much easier. Naturally, Alice Margatroid would have to be returned to Gallia, Tristain would clearly be in the wrong if they withheld her. And if she pushed hard enough, she may also be able to acquire the Valliere scion to stand trial in Gallia; pleasing both Patchouli and the King.

Beside her, Patchouli unsuccessfully stifled what might have been a giggle. The Tristainians attention shifted to her curiously.

"May I ask what is humorous?" the princess politely asked, her face showing her clear interest.

Josette scrambled for an answer. Lists of excuses were instantly available to her, but her mind grimaced. The question was directed to Patchouli, not her. She could only hope that Patchouli knew how to-

"Alice is no Gallian noble." Patchouli truthfully stated. Her face suddenly calm and controlled again as she faced the princess.

Well that wasn't the answer she was hoping for. It did

"Ah… is that so?" the princess hesitantly asked, clearly surprised by the admission and glancing to the balding man behind her who was now nervously shifting in place.

"But she could use magic." The balding man interjected.

"Yes, she is an old friend of mine who sought asylum from Gallia after escaping the mess that's Albion." Patchouli lied with a completely straight face. Josette strained to see any of the natural signs; the fidgeting and eye movement. The woman was seemed to be in her element.

"Ah… um…" the man hesitantly started as he thought on a response. "My apologies. I thought you meant that she wasn't a noble."

"Do you not trouble yourself? She was a rather minor one to begin with. And we only befriended each other recently." Patchouli reassured the man.

"So, Lady Alice isn't a Gallian noble?" the princess ventured, looking at Patchouli.

"Not yet." The witch replied nonchalantly.

"Not yet?" the princess repeated in question.

Patchouli shot a glance at her, probably meaning to remind her of what they had agreed on earlier.

And she had honestly thought that Patchouli intended to take over the conversation. It was starting to feel that way to be honest. It seemed like it was the beginning of some long intricate strategy. Though really… making Alice some sort of refugee from a country which doesn't like nobles just unnecessarily complicated things.

A minor noble with no lands and seeking asylum compared to a daughter of the second most powerful house in Tristain. The Valliere could definitely have enough influence to cover up such an incident.

Status was a problem. A minor noble with barely anything to her name was aplenty in this world and expendable. The daughter to Valliere made her far more valuable. If Gallia insisted on pursuing further action then it would be seen as an overreaction and any real substantial punishment, such as imprisonment which the King would push for, would be seen as a real aggressive action against Tristain.

With Gallia pressuring Tristian, Germania may take the rather unlikely but possible decision break of its alliance with Tristain. She suspected that while they were willing to fight Reconquista with Tristain, they weren't willing to engage in both Reconquista and Gallia.

And Tristain would be necessary to keep Reconquista's attention away from Gallia, a bulwark to stand against Reconquista while Gallia lived in peace. Just because Gallia was supporting Reconquista now, didn't mean it wouldn't turn on them later; in fact she was certain they would do just that given the chance.

Of course, when she was Queen she would redirect the King's support to Reconquista to Tristain. At the very least it will stall Reconquista or at best, stop them altogether. Sending military assistance to clear her uncle's mess was something she would not do unless it was a last resort. Better Tristainians die than Gallians.

But back on topic; she should not go out of her way to antagonize the Tristianians by demanding the Valliere in recompense. They would be useful later on. Miss Alice would already be more than adequate.

It was not as if the King would even know. His orders were to withdraw and Patchouli had only identified Miss Valliere as a prize of chance. And even then she was likely an afterthought to getting Miss Alice.

"The King is contemplating granting her some minor land in exchange for vassalage and service." Josette quickly added to the masquerade. Alice Margatroid would do, she doubted the princess wanted her either, too much political trouble of keeping an unwilling foreign noble as a familiar. Though, she wondered if Patchouli realized that she had lowered the value of Alice as a bargaining tool considerably.

"Of course." The princess nodded. "In any case, we will return her to you. I again apologize for the trouble and sincerely hope that this will not impact the happy relations our two kingdoms share."

"Of course, your highness. There was no lasting harm done. We will retrieve Lady Margatroid from the Academy by the end of the day." Josette reassured the princess.

The princess glanced at the balding man, who gave a nervous nod. "That is fine. Of course, I hope that we can quietly brush aside this minor hiccup in favor of better relations."

"Of course, your highness." Josette repeated. The princess was essentially saying that she wanted to keep this entire affair quiet. She doubted that they could keep this a secret; the Valliere did summon Alice in a mix of international students.

The princess then stood, which unconditionally meant that the extremely brief meeting was over. Josette got up with her, noticing that Patchouli waited for her to do so before doing it herself.

"Thank you for having us." Josette gave a bow which Patchouli imitated a bit poorly.

"It was no trouble. I will have a servant see you out." The princess ordered more than offered.

"You have my most gracious thanks but that is not necessary." Josette thanked as she led the way out of the room.

Once out, the pair walked along the corridor until they were out of earshot of the guard.

"Well, that was easy." Patchouli noted with some disappointment in her voice. It was comparable to simply pushing a button to accomplish something. There was literally very little involvement in that aside from making up a cover for Alice.

"About yesterday night…" Josette trailed off, not giving anything away at all. Really, what she said could be in context of just about anything.

"No. I was only interested in Alice. The second was only an afterthought. Unless you still want to?" Patchouli asked.

Did she want to kidnap a girl out of her home and away from family? Not really, but then morality of things hadn't stopped her before. But then there wasn't really much point at all. It would just create unnecessary complications of returning a dead girl to Tristain later.

She shook her head in negative. There wasn't much point.

"A pity."

* * *

"Do you understand your orders." The dark cloaked man asked of the small teal haired girl in a second year's uniform. They were in one of the more isolated parts of the castle, the one where she normally received her orders.

Tabitha nodded in reply. She did not like her orders in the least… but she had expected them.

The King wanted to find the other void users. So her orders were to find the void user of Tristain. The Academy was the easiest way for her to legitimately enter Tristain.

She had identified Louise Franciose de La Valliere as the void user of Tristian quickly. She lacked the ability to successfully cast any of the four elements and all attempts resulted in explosions.

And when she had summoned the doll user, Alice Margatroid in the Springtime Familiar summoning… that was conclusive evidence. Only mages of the void could summon humanoid familiars, that her familiar was a powerful one like Knowledge only cemented that in.

So of course, it was only logical that the King would eventually act on this knowledge. She was just glad that the plan didn't involve most of the students. Arrogant and naively unaware of the realities of the world, they may be; but she did not wish to inflict harm on them. They were the closest to friends she had.

_This would awaken them to reality. _she bitterly thought. 'Louise' would be dead by the end of tonight. Of course, they would need a body and young girls were aplenty among the commoners. She didn't know how they intended to make the young girl's corpse resemble Louise, but she could imagine. Calling it bloody would be an underestimation considering that they were trying to mask the death of someone else with another's corpse. As much of it would need to be ruined to know that she is dead but enough needed to be left to identify it as Louise.

Still, atleast Miss Margatroid was no longer present. While there were clearly tensions between the master and summoner, she had noticed that Louise was clearly attempting to make amends before Margatroid was taken away by Josette and Knowledge under the guise that she was some Albion noble that served Gallia.

She was not particularly keen on fighting her for Louise. She shuddered to think of what would happen if that laser she fired hit her flesh. Would 'she' even still be there?

"Then do not tarry. As soon as _Fouquet_ arrives, get the girl back here before going incognito." The man reminded in a harsh tone as Tabitha nodded again in confirmation.

Tabitha turned to hurry back to her room, knowing better than to look back. She didn't know how the man had gotten into the Academy and she did not need to know.

* * *

**I think I'm finally going to write in Louise's perspective next chapter. I don't think I would do it too often though since she really isn't the focus of this story. The magician is.**


	16. Act XVI

**Honestly not sure how I feel about this. I'm not really a big Louise fan so if she's too OOC then please mention it so I can do better later.**

* * *

So this was it... She saw it coming; she knew it was going to happen eventually.

There was no way that a super strong mage would stay as her familiar. Alice could shoot lasers and stuff. What could she do?! Nothing but stupid explosions!

Especially after how she had treated her like she was a commoner at first. No, maybe even worse. As Alice had pointed out, she had made her fami- former familiar into an object that she could unleash her negative emotions at. A single morning of repentance and apology may have earned her Alice's acceptance of her apology but it didn't endear her enough to stay as a familiar.

It was endearing to her pride to apologize but it was only right that she, as a noble, acknowledge her improper behavior towards another noble. And hopefully if anyone would be blamed; it would be her, she didn't want to shame her family and make them more disappointed in her.

Still... She had entertained herself with the deluded thoughts of keeping a powerful mage as a familiar. She had pretended that it was possible for a moment.

So when she saw the Gallians from yesterday return at midday with Professor Colbert in tow, she already knew that her false dream was going to crash back into reality.

There was no heartfelt farewell or anything of the like. Just a simple awkward goodbye and Alice was gone; and along with her, all her aspirations.

She stuffed her head into the pillow, letting the tears soak her already dampened pillow. She had nothing!

After nearly two years of hard work and constant practice, which amounted to more explosions, she had nothing to show for it. The familiar summoning festival was the only real chance she had at proving that she wasn't a complete failure and while it did work; her scant success was taken away from her mere days later.

And she couldn't just summon another familiar. It just wasn't allowed and she would probably just end up summoning Alice again anyway and the whole problem would start over again, worse this time since she would have abducted her twice then.

She released a squeaky growl as she found a way to release some pent up emotions.

"My lady, are you alright?" Louise heard a maid outside nervously asked with a quick rap on the door.

"I'm fine! Leave me!" she shouted, her voice higher and more flustered than she would have liked. She didn't know that there was anyone outside.

The thought of the commoner maid made her angry at the unfairness of the world. The commoners had it easy... they didn't have to worry about all this stuff like her! Why did she have to deal with all of this when all the commoners did was... whatever they did.

A tiny part of her mind wished that she wasn't a Valliere or even a noble. That she would be much happier just doing... whatever the commoners did for fun.

But a much larger part reminded her of her mother's rule. The Rule of Steel. It was the duty of the nobles to handle the hardship leading the commoners. Even if the commoners didn't show their right respect and thanks for all the nobles work in keeping them safe. Someone had to lead.

Even in her turbulent state; she heard a strange noise coming from outside. It sounded like something was flying really fast outside. Maybe it was Tabitha flying around on her dragon again. Why couldn't she get something like that?

Rubbing her eyes, she left her bed to look out the window only to stumble back in shock when she saw a large volley of rocks hurtling towards the girl's dormitory.

She scrambled back to the door, desperate to put her away from the side where the barrage will impact. She made it as far as the door to see a maid, surprised by her door suddenly opening, turning around.

The buildings rocked as hurtling boulders smash through the walls and into the building. Shrapnel and chips of rock flew everywhere as Louise screamed and fell backwards as a rock came tearing through the wall and smashed the door frame, lodging itself in the frame; blocking her way out.

By now there were screams and cries of shock and panic as the entire girl's dorm awoke to the sudden attack. With tears of despair forming in her eyes, Louise fearfully looked at her only possible way out: her expanded window. She thought over it for a minute before shaking her head in frustration. It was a three story drop and she couldn't levitate.

Regardless she carefully scrambled to it, peeking her head over to check if anything el-

Founder… that was big.

"There's another one coming!" Louise heard someone she didn't recognize scream from above. It was quickly followed by more screams as girls panicked.

Louise frantically searched for a way out. Where was her wand? She had left it in-

"Louise." She heard a soft voice call out for her form the window. She anxiously turned her head to see Tabitha and her dragon; Sylphid wasn't it? Tabitha had a hand held out while her dragon hovered near her window.

Behind her was the forsaken large rock that was descending towards the building. There was no way she would survive if that hit the building.

Hesitating only a moment, Louise hurriedly reached out to the extended hand and with surprising strength; Tabitha pulled her onto Sylphid with her. Louise quickly realized that there wasn't anything to hold onto and thus took a firm grip on Tabitha's coat, intent on not falling off.

Not a word was given by Tabitha to get Sylphid to move forward. The impending doom that the rock would be was enough of a motivator. The blue dragon put a burst of speed downwards to the ground before evening back out and skimming the ground which students and staff alike were now filling into.

The deafening crash of the rock smashing into the dormitory echoed across the Academy. Louise tightened her grip on Tabitha as the shockwave shook the Academy. Wood and stone giving way to the massive stone as it crashed into the building and the few isolated screams from inside the building were chilling.

Louise watched in shock as the historic building that had housed students for generations was demolished under the rock.

A second loud crash resonated through the Academy. Both girls turned to the direction of the sound and as to where Tabitha widened her eyes in surprise; Louise fully gasped in horror. The girl's dorm wasn't the only dorm hit and the number of boys trickling out was depressingly low.

"Wand?" Tabitha suddenly asked without emotion in her voice. It may be the usual, but did Tabitha not even feel anything at this. Tons of her classmates were probably really hurt or even worse, trapped under the rubble, unable to get out.

"Ah, I don't have it." Louise admitted with some embarrassment. A noble was always expected to keep a wand on their person at all times. Though she didn't think anyone would blame her for forgetting it since there was a killer rock flying at her.

Tabitha nodded in understanding before nudging the Sylphid who took a sharp turn. Sylphid slowed her flight as they came around the girls servants building, near the edge of the Academy walls.

"Hey, Tabitha why are we here? We need to go back to the dorms and help out!" Louise objected as she pointed back into the direction of the dorms.

"Sorry." The blue haired girl uttered just once before yanking her cloak back from Louise. Louise yelped in surprise and was pulled forward with the action. Using her shoulder, Tabitha then forcibly shoved Louise off her dragon.

Accompanying this, Sylphid then suddenly shifted throwing Louise off of its back. Louise helplessly tried to grab hold of one of its claws, or wings, or anything! But it was for naught as Tabitha and the blue dragon emotionlessly watched her fall the short distance to the ground.

"Ooomph!" Louise let out in pain as all the air in her body gusted out with the hard impact. She was alive… Louise felt like an idiot now, Sylphid wasn't that high off the ground, only just above the average head level.

"Tabitha… this isn.. the tim-" Louise croakily said between coughs from the ground as the teal haired girl shifted her view to something behind her. Said something was a man wearing a dark cloak and a red muffler that hid everything but his eyes. He looked dispassionately down on the pink haired girl. Who was he?

"Who're yo-"she began to form the question and didn't get to say more as the dark cloaked man planted a firm foot onto her face. Pain instantly sparked like thunder across her head and she choked on blood.

The black foot lifted from her face and Louise spat out blood. Tears forming in her eyes as blood started flowing from her face. What was going on? Who was he? Why was h-

"She's still conscious." A second raspy voice said nearby. Louise shivered as she felt the first man's cold eyes on her. He drew back his foot for a second strike.

"Hel-"she tried to shout out. Someone had to save her! The headmaster! Professor Colbert! Kirche even! As the black foot descended on her she called for the one last person. Mother!

Crimson pain blossomed again and her world descended to bottomless darkness.

* * *

"… doing it now?! We need to get away before the search parties come!" an angry voice harshly shot out.

"It'll take them time for them to get their bearings straight, much less send out search parties. I say we have till late morning before they finally get the courage to go after the _Fouquet_." A second voice said.

"You don't know that." the first voice accused. "We shouldn't be taking chances like this anyway!"

"Bah! You know as well as I do that _he_ wants the void user. That witch ain't gonna be going after the Valliere now that she's got her friend. "A third voice joined in.

"That's not what I meant! You should've already been done with _this_ by the time we got her here. Is that girl even the right size?!" The first voice loudly spat out.

"A bit taller, but close enough, though her chest would be a dead giveaway. But we'll deal with that soon enough." The second voice answered calmly. "As for why she needs to watch, well… _he_ will want to."

"Meh, you know how _he _is. He'll want to know to know how her face despaired and all that." The third voice reassured and kicked her prone body at 'her'.

Louise choked, or tried to as a large cloth was stuffed in her mouth, as the pain struck at her stomach. Painfully opening her eyes, she looked up to see three men, all clothed in black cloaks and wearing something to hide their faces. The one who kicked her was the one same one that had hit her earlier.

Besides him were two other men. To the left was a thin man wearing a more ragged copy of the muffler man's own outfit. Though instead of a muffler, he had a cloth helmet that only left his eyes open to hide his identity.

Sitting on sort of chair with his arms crossed was the bigger man. Glints of steel and odd bulges under his cloak meant that he was probably wearing armor, though the helmet her wore was a dead giveaway.

As Louise slowly turned her head, she stopped when something felt off. Her head seemed lighter and less heavy than usual, but she couldn't tell what it was.

"Ah, the sleeping princess hath awoken." The second man mocked as he placed the attention back onto her.

Louise looked up at him in anger. Trying to move, she glanced down to see her body was tied with robe with one even holding a loud piece of cloth in her mouth. Even her clothes were changed, she was wearing something that one of those maids wore.

Then her eyes widened in shock and she let out a silent cry as she realized the reason why her head felt lighter.

There was another girl, tied up in a similar fashion to herself and dressed in her Academy uniform. But the most distinguishing feature was her lack of hair, tracks of dried blood on her scalp explained what happened to it. Right beside the girl's scarred head was her own long pink hair; flimsily attached to her head to imitate her.

The two met eyes, hers confused and hurt while the other desperate and pleading.

"Gah… let's just get this over with then." The first man reluctantly said as he moved over to the other girl who started squirming in cold fear as he approached, her skin chafing under tightness of the ropes as she desperately tried to get away.

The first man halted only for a moment before pulling a wand out of his cloak. Uttering a spell under his breath; he levitated the still struggling girl who was now trying to scream, muted noises coming out from her mouth.

She was unceremoniously dropped in front of Louise. Her face turned to face Louise, her eyes begging Louise to do something while streams of tears flowed from them.

Louise could only look back in horror, feeling completely helpless as she too struggled to release herself from her bonds. What were they going to do to her?!

"A shame there's no knight in shining armor to save you." The armored man said, as he too pulled out a wand. Louise slowly watched as he pointed the wand at the girl on the ground, who was staring at the man with wide eyes filled with consuming fear.

She started to struggle as she saw what he intended, struggling all the harder as she fruitlessly tried to get out of her bonds and stop this. She had to get out and stop this!

"…She could have saved you." The armored man darkly told his victim, gesturing at Louise. The girl shot Louise a pleading last look which Louise could only fearfully return before the armored man cast a flame spell that consumed her body.

Louise screamed at the same time with girl though for different reasons; both their voices came out as nothing more than muted cries. The girl struggled as the consuming flames tore away at her body and after only a few moments the struggles became weaker and weaker.

Creakingly her head around to face Louise, the girl shot one last look at Louise. This one wasn't pleading to be spared to desperate to escape. It was one that accused her for this, one of burning hatred for being the cause of her scorching pain and agonizing death.

Louise tried to tear her eyes away, to get away from the sight and smell of the burning corpse, but the man with the muffler reached down and forced her head back, back to those staring eyes.

By the Founder…

The armored man then put out the fire, leaving the corpse with severe burns covering her entire body. She was barely recognizable anymore, what was left of the pink hair stuck to her head was barely even visible anymore and there was not a single spot of skin left that was not marred with burns.

"Louise Francious le Blanc de La Valliere is dead." The armored man quietly announced to the room of three men and one tied up Louise Valliere.

"I don't think it's convincing enough." The man with the muffler said as he poked at the corpse. "I mean; it kinda looks like her… but I'm not sure."

The armored man nodded in agreement and crossed his arms in thought. After he reached an epithany; he turned to the third member of their group who was grimly watching the corpse. "Crush the body."

Louise and the man both widened their eyes in surprise at the order.

"What? Why? It resembles her enough with all those burns covering the important parts." The masked man objected.

"The chest area. The maids' was a lot bigger. Crush it." The armored man impassively said. He paused for a moment before adding something else. "Actually crush the entire body, just leave some hair."

"You've got to be kidding me. Don't you think we've done enough." The man continued to object, as he backed away slowly from the corpse.

"Are you disobeying a direct order?" the armored man asked, as he lifted the wand in his hand ever so slightly.

"…no." the cloth masked man finally relented. He stiffly marched up to the girl and pulled out his own wand. Casting a spell, he created a large stone the size of the girl's body.

He slowly hovered the rock over the girl's body. Louse reluctantly watched as he lifted it higher up. "May Brimir forgive me for this." He solemnly muttered as he let the rock fall.

The crimson blood splattered across the room as the rock collapsed onto the corpse. Of her captors, only the man who did the deed flinched when the bottom most part of his clothes were stained with the liquid.

But for Louise, the bloody water splashed all across her face. It marred what was left of her pink hair and even got into her eyes, mixing with her own tears giving the effect that she was crying tears of blood. But her eyes only stared.

The rock had crushed most her face but the eyes were still there. The black tinted eyes that will forever stare into the endless void. Louise could only stare back.

An armored foot then crushed what was left, splattering more blood across. "I forgot the eyes."

Louise's blood stained eyes closed and she fainted.

* * *

**Again, I'm not sure how I feel about this. Not sure if I went too overboard with this, I kinda feel… meh right now. I think I'm just gonna go read something a bit more heartwarming now.**


	17. Act XVII

**For whatever strange reason, my earlier update: Act XVI (16) wasn't shown on the archive. If you haven't; please read that first.**

* * *

A splash of cool water stung on Louise's sore face as her eyes snapped awake. Her first reaction was to rub the water out of her face, before her tired arms chafed against her binds and she remembered what happened.

She shivered as she remembered those eyes; the voided eyes that accused her of the end of life.

Looking around, it looked like she was in some peasant's room or something. Stacks of hay and straw was scattered across the small wooden interior.

"Wakey, wakey." a grouchy voice said. Recognising the voice and freezing in involuntary dread, she tilted her head to see the muffler man, though this time; it was without that certain accessory to hide his face.

Even without that dark cloak and crimson muffler, there was nothing out of the ordinary about him, an unremarkable face with the addition of simple dirty black hair. It was only the same cruel eyes and mocking voice that let her identify him.

"How do ya like your new abode? Quite comfy for a commoner, aside from them ropes of course." the man said as he rummaged through a straw sack.

Loiuse responded by screaming at him, promising that they'll never get away with this; never mind that it all came out in animalistic grunts as the disgusting cloth in her mouth muted her voice. Her pink shaded eyes glaring at him with a mix of vilified anger and unbarred hate.

"Hoh, no need to get so rowdy now." the kidnapper said as he produced a half loaf of bread from the sack. He looked at her with some thoughtful eyes.

"Now, I'm gonna take that thing out of ya mouth to feed ya. Don't go bitten me fingers now." the man warned as his hand slowly moved to untie the rope that held the dirty cloth in her mouth.

Louise silently waited for him to do so, putting up on token discomfort as the cloth was pulled out of her mouth. Taking in deep breaths through her mouth she sucked in air to prepare to scream.

"HELP ME!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. There had to be someone that would hear her. Even if the dastardly kidnapper stuffed that rag back into her mouth, someone would come investigate.

To her surprise, the man only watched her in bemusement as she shouted and screamed out pleas for aid. It was only when she was huffing in deep exhausted breaths from exertion that he finally reacted.

"Don't waste ya breath. Everyone on the ship's in on it." The man informed her, his face sported a wicked smile as her one fell to disbelief.

"Don't you know what will happen when you get caught!? Let me go and I'll see to it that they -" Louise started as she regained her breath. She never finished as the muffler man let loose a wild laugh.

The man gave Louise an amused look as he pushed her over. She gave a yelp in surprise and then pain as her battered head collided with the strands of straw and hay. She began to struggle again but went limp when she felt the man begin to untie her.

Hope flared up in her light heart as the binds holding her loosened. Moments later they were all gone and she was helped to her feet by the man.

Her eyes were filling with appreciation as she looked her rescuer in the eye. "It is good that you still have some sense in you. Now, we have to-

Her words were cut off yet again as the man's driving fist connected with her soft stomach. Her breath was knocked out of her as she collapsed to her knees.

"I hate ya nobles ya nobles, ya know." the man darkly said as he loomed over her small form. His face was filled with barely disguised loathing as he looked down at her groveling form. "All that arrogance and treating us commons like animals... Really just sets me off."

"Ya think ya all so great. Acting like ya the Founder himself and lording all over us low commons. "He delivered a damaging kick, which sent Louise back to the ground, her eyes tearing from the pain. Her body shriveled up protectively as she tried to shield her body from further blows. "But without ya wands and pretty magic, ya not worth jack."

Her wand! Where was her wand!? She gritted her teeth in frustration and anger as she recalled that it was back in the Academy. Couldn't she eve-

Louise winced and gritted her teeth as another kick sent a new flurry of pain through her body. She wasn't going to give the dog the satisfaction of her screaming in pain.

"Still think ya better than us!? Huh? Huh?" the man spat out. He kicked her again and only grew angrier when Louise still didn't scream.

He drew back his foot back for another kick but froze when an armored hand firmly landed on his shoulder. The armored man was standing behind him, a wand at the ready in his other hand. "Stop this."

The muffler man glared at the armored man with the same burning hatred that he showed Louise. With great visible strain he slowly calmed himself down a bit. "I wasn't gonna kill her."

"No... But you might end up crippling her at this rate." the armored man replied, taking retracting his hand and relaxing when it became clear his accomplice was somewhat stable again. "And besides, beating the Valliere isn't going to bring them back."

The muffler man narrowed his eyes and his fists clenched. Reluctantly he nodded and looked in disdain at the shivering form of Louise.

He spat into the food sack that he had brought earlier and took off, slamming the door behind him. This left the still armored man with the prone Louise.

The man picked up the sack and tossed over to Louise. She blankly looked as soiled food tumbled out it. It looked disgusting and the amount was barely adequate for a meal.

"Eat. You will get nothing else. And don't bother to try and escape. We are a ship." the man told her before he too left the crying Louise alone in her misery.

Help…

* * *

Pope Vittorio, the Shield of the Founder gave out a depressed sigh, void of happiness as he looked at the number of sheets that he needed to get through. He was severally regretting his decision to try and apprehend his new pagan familiar.

The amount of stone that was displaced from his palace was compromising the integrity of the entire structure. The rubble was still being removed and the holes that now littered his palace were temporarily being covered by cloth.

His Elite Papal Guards were in shambles. It had taken his new familiar approximately seven seconds to understand her Windalfr powers and put them to use in dismounting all his airborne guards. Those on the ground were defeated by a blur faster than most could even see. The very best of his men lasted only a minute of missed parries and attacks before he succumbed to the lightning fast strikes.

It was either a miracle or her intention that none of his men were dead. And he suspected that it was the latter. She was trying to prove a point, most likely.

And it was a point well proven and a lesson well learned. He had severely underestimated the power of the familiars of the void. Of course the Founder would not have designed the spell to simply pick up a random person. There must be some sort of selection process which gave only the most suitable.

"Your Holiness, Bishop Adriano needs these papers signed to confirm the bulk purchase of marble from Germania." A priest interrupted his thoughts, as the man brought another small pile of paper into his room.

Vittorio was going to question how he got in, before he remembered the obvious. His door was torn down yesterday. There was now just a gaping hole in its stead.

"Please place them here." He requested as he waved to the pile on his left. The priest nodded as he and deposited his load, slightly increasing the size of the pile.

When the priest was gone, he sighed yet again. He had too many problems to deal with already. A rouge Windalfr just added to them.

First Joseph de Gallia was screwing with him again. By the Founder, but did he really loathe the man. He didn't know what he had done to insult the mad king of Gallia, but he was singled out three years ago to be his target.

The sooner that girl deposes Joseph from the throne, the better. She seemed far more stable and less prone to support the rebel organization that threatened the stability of all of Halkegenia. Getting her to comply with Papal edicts was certainly going to be far easier than Joseph would ever be.

And speaking of Reconquista, they were on the move again. It wasn't common knowledge yet but his spies in Albion reported that King James of Albion was now dead, his head on a pike for all to see in Londonium.

That a large number of mercenaries that were caught on the wrong side of the war were running to Tristain was not surprising. It was that a number of them were quickly finding re-employment in Tristain's service was a bit… disturbing; too many chances for Reconquista spies to be among them. He could only hope that Tristian had the sense not to trust them too much.

Founder… but he couldn't let Tristain fall. It would be devastating to Halkegenia for half of the Brimiric Kingdoms to be disintegrated.

Now if only Joseph de Gallia would see sense and stop blocking the Romallian fleet and army from reinforcing Tristain. He had thought that the mad man's ambition was to only take Albion but he was taking it further to Tristain.

There was just simply no way, that he could send aid. Even the choice of sending supplies and money to Tristain was cut off now that Gallia wasn't letting Romalian ships through and that the mountain pass connecting the two kingdoms were still being cleared.

With Gallia simultaneously supporting Reconquista and blocking Romalia, it would be left to Tristain to stand against Reconquista with questionable Germanian aid.

He sighed again as his mind reviewed Halkegenia situation. It wasn't a great stable situation right now. Founder... but he was doing a terrible job at being Pope and maintaining the Brimiric Kingdoms.

* * *

"Shhh…" Tiffania hushed the scared whispers of the children as she chanced a quick glance from underneath the roots of the tree. The old hiding spot that Mathilda made to cheat in hide and seek. It was a small cave located beneath a tree with its entrance hidden from sight by the tall grass of the undergrowth.

It was the perfect hiding place whenever some human soldiers manage to get to the village. She winced along with the children when she heard the sound of wood breaking. It was a familiar sound.

"Big si-" one of the smaller girls started before someone else covered her mouth. It was really hard to see in the darkness.

"Shhh…" Tiffania reminded the children. The small hole was just that. It was meant to comfortably hold only a few people at best. With a lot of little children and one teenager, it was cramped and stuffy.

"Nothing left here sir. Just a bunch of empty huts." She heard a man say. That was good; they usually left after looking around and breaking things a few times.

"Damn that was all there is? Tch, what a waste of time… Gather the men, we need to keep moving before those rebel dogs find us." An older voice angrily said.

"Sir."

There were a whole lot of other noises and shouts as the soldiers moved along. Tiffania waited for what felt like a whole day before she dared to peek her head out to check if they were gone. Her light blue eyes scanned the whole village clear of soldiers, feeling sorrow when she saw the sorry state the small cottages were in now.

Ducking her head back into the hole, she uncomfortably swiveled around to face the children, or tried to as she couldn't really see them. "I think they're gone. But don't come out until I come back from checking okay?"

She felt, rather than heard them nod, some of their little heads bumping in with each other and causing squeaks of surprise and pain.

Gulping down her own fear, Tiffania slowly crawled out of the hole, her eyes constantly looking around just in case there was one soldier who was still there.

With her whole body out, she slowly did a full circle around the village, making sure that it was really empty like how his sister showed her, her light blue eyes sorrowful as she saw the damaged state that the village was in. It was even worse than usual.

Picking her way, through what was left of a crude fence; she glanced into the windows of one of the cottages the children slept in. Most of the beds were stripped of their blankets but they luckily left the curtains.

Stopping at a corner, she peeked her head around the corner and her heart dropped when she saw that the small crop patch she and the children had been tending to was also stripped of anything. Lined holes in the dirt marked where the plants, that they spent weeks growing, used to be.

Reaching her own little hut, she reluctantly walked in to check. Easing herself in through the broken door, she sighed in relief when she saw that the rugged carpet was still in place. That meant they hadn't found the small box hidden underneath it.

Pulling the carpet aside, she fumbled around on all fours in the dust until she found the small string attached to the handle. Pulling it open, she felt a bit of happiness as she saw that what was left of the supplies her sister left was still there.

A few more seeds, skins of water, and some cloth towel. She fretted when she saw how sparse they were now. Once they used this all up, there would be no more. She wished her sister would come home soon or else they would be in big trouble.

Regardless, she had to be strong for the children. Pulling out the blanket first, her alert eyes instantly noticed a small piece of paper drop out of its folds.

Picking it up, she recognized Mathilda's handwriting and read through its contents, her eyes widened in surprise and filling back with hope when she finished. She wondered why her sister never had her do this before. It would have made life here a lot easier.

She could honestly say that they could really use a protector right now.

* * *

**Hmm… I think I'm making the Zero no Tsukaima world somewhat darker. **


	18. Act XVIII

**Subscribing**** to the thought that Shinki is Alice's adopted mom. It makes the most sense to me.**

* * *

"Do you suppose that he started a war in our absence?" Patchouli sarcastically asked Josette as she observed the large body of troops marching in unison towards a growing war camp outside the capital. Leading the troops into the camp was a well-dressed man with a flowing cape and a sword, rather strange choice of weapon for a magician to use.

The massive army bore the Gallian banner, the cross staffs and blue crown at its forefront. The soldiers themselves seemed a have a regulated armor, most of it being padded leather and steel with a white or blue trim. Strangely enough, there seemed to be sparse nobles among the soldiers and the few there were, were also hurrying into the city.

She did not know how the Gallian military functioned, but she would have supposed that the officers would have been exclusively nobles. The promotion of common soldiers to officer roles should still have been around a hundred or so years away, by her world's standards.

Their carriage, still guarded by the false knights, easily made their way towards Versaille's city gates. Most of the commoners made room for them to pass and the soldiers seemed to follow suit.

"It is not impossible." Josette casually replied. Indeed, she had expected de Gallia to start a war eventually, but she would have thought that it would be after either Reconquista loses to Tristain or Reconquista conquers Tristain. Striking an opponent directly after they came out of a conflict seemed ideal. Though as far as she knew; neither of those events has happened.

"By 'he' do you mean your master, Patchouli?" Alice asked, leaning her head outwards to gaze at the capital city of Gallia. "Is he a warmonger?"

Patchouli nodded in affirmative. Warmongering was definitely one of the things he seemed to have an interest in. "Correct. I suspect he also is likely somewhat crazy and probably planning world domination."

"He sounds worse than Louise." Alice remarked. Patchouli could agree with that. Alice's summoner did not exactly seem like the most level headed and capable person. But at least she was not planning to conquer the world with a tide of steel and blood. Though she supposed that might just be because one was King of Gallia and the other simply a powerful noble girl. Even then, that sounded unlikely.

"He is. I suspect that quite a bit of Halkegenia's problems are related to him." Josette suddenly quipped in. Her face somewhat angry as she told Alice all about her uncle's _exploits_ without actually deploring him in anyway.

"Why are you even working for him?" Alice incredulously asked Patchouli when Josette finished telling her about how he caused a civil war in Albion.

Patchouli sighed and lifted her hand to her forehead; her hand parted the hair to reveal the Myoznitnirn runes. "These runes are why I am still here."

"You mean they place some sort of restriction on you." Alice said in horror as she looked down onto her own forehand. No doubt worrying that her own familiar runes placed the same restrictions.

"No, I mean that they are quite useful and I am interested in trying to create my own." Patchouli clarified for her friend. "With them my natural weaknesses are nullified and my own reserves are greatly improved."

"So you want to replicate the runes." Alice concluded as she continued to look at her runes. The black Gandalfr runes inscribed into her hands making it rather hard to hide compared to her own ones.

"That is essentially it." Patchouli agreed to her conclusion. It was the whole reason why she was still here in this world. She would have left it by now otherwise.

"Do my runes have the same properties as yours?" Alice inquisitively asked. A magician would always seek knowledge after all. Even Marisa Kirisame did it in her own way, that being stealing it from her library.

"No. Mine is Myoznitnirn. It apparently lets me do just about anything related to magic without consequence but I have as of yet succeeding in doing something that I could not have done before." Patchouli informed her. Thought to be fair, she had not actively gone about testing the limits of her runes that much. Just that failed rain storm experiment and even then it was a spell that she had mastered long ago. Perhaps she should go about transmuting someone into a toad or something.

"And these are?" Alice asked, pointing to her own runes.

Patchouli examined them and compared them to the runes embedded in her memory. "Gandalfr. Hand of God or something. Able to masterly use any weapon she wields. Rather useless for someone like you."

Alice sighed as she nodded her agreement. Her hands were almost always busy with the manipulation of her dolls. The odds of her personally wielding a weapon with her hands were auspiciously low. Her dolls were her weapons and tools, her best defense and offence.

Amusingly, Shanghai had a sympathetic look on her face as she patted her master's head in encouragement. As always, it looked natural and fluid. She sometimes had to wonder if Alice was subconsciously doing that or it was simply a deliberate act. Regardless of the answer, her multitasking skills were remarkable as always.

"Still... your working for an power hungry maniac just to learn how to copy some buffs?" Alice complained to her. Likely it seemed morally wrong to work for a someone who was going to cause rather large quantities of deaths and mass misery.

"Buffs?" Patchouli asked in confusion. She was not familiar with the term but from the context used, it seemed to be associated with a positive status effect.

"Something like a power up." Alice clarified for her.

Now that slang she was familiar with. Marisa Kirisame used it quite often when she casts spells that increase her speed and power. She had a slight suspicion that Alice was spending a bit too much time with her if she picking up on her slang.

"Then, yes. These runes provide me excess quantities of magic and has improved my health dramatically." Patchouli explained her reason for wanting to replicate them. Alice was still young for a magician and thus did not know how irritating having all those diseases add up from their constant use of dangerous elements and material in their spells.

"And this is worth the amount of deaths your master is going to cause?" Alice objected to her reasoning.

"He will continue his plans regardless of me. I actually have not done all that much to help him." she replied to the objection. Outside from killing the Prince of Albion, she had not, directly or indirectly, aided him in pursuing whatever his goals were. And she was certain that he could have accomplished the former without her anyhow, it would even likely be more subtle. Why he wanted her to do so was probably just to test her abilities.

"That doesn't mean you cannot stop him." Alice told her disapprovingly. No doubt thinking that simply killing de Gallia was easy. And truth be told, she could have easily killed him at any point. She had surprise and power on her side and de Gallia would stand little chance. But it was the consequences of... well, killing a King that made it difficult.

"Murdering a King with a powerful army behind him is not the most wisest thing one can do. Especially since he is the source of the runes's magic." Patchouli dryly remarked. Not to mention that she would lose out on living in a comfortable palace full with servants. Being on the run from most of Gallia for the murder of their King did not seem all that appealing considering the alternative. She would have have to flee to another country altogether and even then she would likely be chased.

Add in the negative that she would be sickly again left a poor picture for her. Even if she was stronger than human magicians in this land, it would not be especially difficult to for one to eliminate her when she was humbled by sickness.

"Right. He's a King." Alice sighed as she recalled her friends master.

"Wait... he's the source of the runes magic?" Alice asked Patchouli, her face perplexed and surprised as she looked upon the other Youkai magician.

"Yes. I just said so." Patchouli confirmed, slightly suspicious as to what Alice was leading on.

"How do you plan to replicate the runes?" Alice suddenly asked.

"I would use myself for the power source." Patchouli immediately answered, she had thought over that before.

"But then if you were using your own magic then wouldn't the benefits become redundant." Alice objectively pointed out.

Patchouli faltered for a moment before nodding slowly. That was true in part. The boost in her magic would be useless because she would be essentially channeling her own magic via the runes back to herself. A waste of time and effort.

"Only the boost in magic but I am focusing on the healing aspect of it." Patchouli replied. She would have to forgo the magic enhancement. But the enhancements to her health alone was worthwhile.

Her own attempts at curing her body were never good enough. It was often beyond her own magical limit to fully cure all he...

Wait...

...

"But then doesn't th-" Alice tried to continue on before Patchouli plopped her head down. Her eyes hidden behind the shadows of her hair.

She had... for a lack of better words: 'screwed up". Whatever made her do all this had failed for not thinking it all the way through. It was so logical now that she thought about it but she had skipped over them in favor of quickly studying the runes first, confident that she could replicate them.

The runes would need a vast magic source to heal all her aliments. She had never had enough to fully do so on her own. Her own work was likely better than some human magician that lived only a few decades long. The chances of his work being superior and more efficient that hers were astronomically low.

If she applied the runes to herself and used herself as the source: she would run out of magic to power it. The healing will fail and her aliments will more likely than not naturally return to her in full force. She would be just as sick as she was before except this time without any magic.

No magic meant she could not do anything. Magic was a magician's lifeblood and without it they were essentially a human. Less, since a human would not be hindered with all the negative side effects of magic.

If so, then the runes were in fact useless to her simply because she would lack the magic to maintain. But that would mean...

All this time...

"Patchouli?"

"...do you have a way to return?" Patchouli asked in an extremely quiet voice. Strange, she had not thought about her library in weeks; but returning was extremely appealing to her right now.

"Pardon?" Alice said as she strained to hear Patchouli's words.

"Home. Do you know how to get back?" Patchouli said a bit louder yet still quieter than a whisper.

"Gensokyo? Um... we could try to summon someone from Makai, give them a message for my mother, and then cancel the contract and send them back to Makai. She should be able to get us back." Alice semi-confidently outlined her plan to return.

"You don't know how to summon someone from Makai, do you?" Patchouli dejectedly said after some thought.

"Ah..." Alice flushed as she shook her head in negative. "I was hoping you knew."

Did she know how to summon a familiar from Makai? Yes. There was no spell in her library that was unknown to her.

But she already had a familiar in the form of a lower level devil in the form of Koakuma. And she doubted that summoning Koakuma and passing a message to her destined for the Goddess of Makai would be useful. She was a lower class devil for a reason and she would be highly amazed if Koakuma was even allowed to come close to the Goddess of devils.

But... Patchouli glanced at Alice and Josette, who had quietly listened to their conversation. There were others without familiars.

* * *

**Koishi Hell has screwed my mind. MANnosuke is a scary and disturbing foe.**


	19. Act XIX

**I think I'm going OOC with Joseph. But then the jerk move he kinda pulls seems to work in my mind, not sure about everyone else. And I'm regretting using roman numerals. **

* * *

"This city is pretty lively." Alice remarked as their carriage slowly waded their way to the palace. Their guards could be heard shouting for others to move aside with the occasional snarl shot back from the odd soldier in Gallian colors.

"It is the capital of Gallia and one of its most important cities. I think there is a few million inhabitants in this city." Josette loudly informed Alice over the noise of the bustling crowd outside.

"A lot of those soldiers seem to be in here too." Alice observed as another group of Gallian soldiers strolled past their cart before disappearing into the crowd.

"I would imagine that at quite a lot of the soldiers encamped outside the city is currently allowed into the city." Josette replied.

"Yes. Have some enjoyable times with their friends and family before they go off to die en masse." Patchouli negatively muttered from her chair.

That quickly murdered the mood in the carriage as the other two occupants fell silent.

"Um… Miss Alice, do you need me to organize somewhere for you to stay?" Josette asked, breaking the tempered silence.

"Yes, that would be helpful. Nothing too lavish though." Alice told her.

"That would be difficult since most of the less lavish ones would have already been taken by other minor nobles." Josette rejected her hopes for something that would not stand out too much.

"Is there that many nobles here?" asked a curious puppeteer.

"The rather large army camped outside the city attracts quite the attention. It stands to reason that the King is planning to announce something rather important. Thus most nobles will want to be here to hear it firsthand rather than second hand to see if there is something that would allow them to gain an advantage over rivals." Josette said, taking gaps between each sentence to catch her breath. It was a rather long winded explanation.

"Because Gallia is a perfect example of a country mostly filled with back stabbing nobles fueled by self-interest." Patchouli dryly added.

"That's quite insulting you know?" Alice chastised uncaring Patchouli.

"But true. Gallia is rife with internal conflict. The King has so far cunningly taken advantage of that and plays nobles against each other to ensure no one is sufficiently strong enough to challenge him." Josette defended. She sighed in exasperation as she reviewed Gallia's lack of unity among the nobles.

"Your master sounds like an evil mastermind, Patchouli." Alice noted to her friend.

"He has not accomplished an amazing amount of feats just yet." Patchouli remarked. He had not really started causing mass destruction as he goes about conquering the world just yet. Though remembering that army, it seemed like he was about to begin.

* * *

"It is good to see you back." Joseph de Gallia heartily welcomed as they entered into his office once more. He raised an eye in curiosity at Alice who, along with Josette, gave a slight bow to him.

Patchouli gave him a brief glance before settling down, not on her usual seat beside the desk, but on the comfortable sofa with the velvet cushions. She had no mind to listen to his ramblings at this moment.

With Patchouli taking her spot, Josette edged over to sit close to de Gallia.

Alice, unsure of where to go, sat next to Patchouli for a lack of anywhere else to go. Her back was straight and her overall being far more attentive than her somewhat.

"And I suppose that you're that Albionese that little Henrietta apologized to me about." de Gallia correctly assumed as he examined a somewhat nervous Alice.

"Funny... I don't recall ever giving asylum to anyone." he added with a note of suspicion in his voice; his eyes looking to Patchouli for an explanation.

Patchouli gave a tired sigh. She did not really want to even be in this office but it was still only noon and thus far too early to just retire to her room. Moping in her room on how she had wasted her time here would serve no purpose anyhow... it was certainly a tempting course of action regardless.

"She's a friend of mine." Patchouli tiredly told him, hoping that would satisfy him despite suspecting otherwise.

"From your homeland?" de Gallia surprisingly questioned.

Patchouli nodded in confirmation. That was true enough.

"So is she as strong as you?" de Gallia asked, showing a sudden interest.

Patchouli glanced at Alice, her eyes giving a pleading look to her. Alice was far better suited to discussing herself than she was for extremely obvious reasons. All she wanted right now was to sit down and have a bit of time to collect herself.

"I would say I have more power but Patchouli still has about a centuries worth of experience over me." Alice took over the conversation from a beleaguered Patchouli. The first part of that sentence was extremely debatable unless she had that Grimoire of hers; then which she would have more raw power than Kirisame. And as for the second, she felt somewhat better now.

"Is... that so... Miss Magatroit?" de Gallia tested the name, apparently unsure if he remembered it properly.

"Alice Margatroid, your highness." Alice introduced herself with a small bow of respect.

"Joseph de Gallia." he returned to her, giving a small incline of his head.

"And you say that you're stronger than her." he said as the king gestured to her sitting on the sofa.

"At full force I would have more power. But I wouldn't say that I am stronger than Patchouli." Alice replied.

"Yes, she has... how many years again?" de Gallia asked, probably boggled at her age.

"I'm about one hundred and ten years older than Alice." Patchouli informed de Gallia.

"Right. I've forgotten you weren't human." de Gallia admitted. Patchouli could not really blame him for that. A magician was closer to humans than most other Youkai and the only real distinguishable feature was their superior magic to that of humans. It was not especially uncommon for a sufficiently powerful human magician to become a Youkai magician as was the case with Alice.

"But your around her level right?" de Gallia questioned again, a gleam in his eye.

"I suppose..." Alice answered uneasily. de Gallia was probably planning to use her against whoever he was planning to invade with the army outside.

"Then I approve your request for asylum to Gallia!" de Gallia heartily announced as he rummaged through the desk and withdrew several sealed sheets. "Now would you rather be the Viscountess of Nimes or Albes?"

"Pardon?" Alice apparently did not understand why or how de Gallia could simply give out titles like that. And to be honest, she was not sure herself how he had so many titles to give away. Perhaps those titles belonged to political enemies he killed off or he might just be making them up.

"Nimes or Albes? I would recommend Albes since Nimes is pretty close to Romalia." de Gallia casually said as he dropped one of the sheets back into the draw and handed the second to Alice.

"And why would that matter?" Alice asked as she took the paper.

"Well... I am going to destroy Romalia so..." he left off. Not the least perturbed about what he had just said.

There was a small gasp from besides Patchouli and Alice seemed to have become more agitated now.

She had thought wrong then. For unknown reasons; de Gallia had chosen to attack his southern neighbor instead if his weaker northern neighbors'. She did not really think that he hated that Pope enough to go and conquer his country.

"You're going to invade Romalia?" oddly, it was Josette who asked this in a soft voice.

"Invade!? I didn't say that." de Gallia exclaimed in surprise.

If he was not invading then...

"I'm going to destroy Romalia. Every city, town and village will have to be razed and the inhabitants silenced. I don't want to deal with the issues of overextension and rebels that comes with conquest. " de Gallia said, as if the planned murder of millions was nothing out of the ordinary for him.

Josette seemed to pale at the implications of this genocidal scheme. It was definitely something one should be concerned about considering that de Gallia seemed to want Romalia scraped off the maps.

And Alice looked like she was preparing to argue. She already had trouble accepting de Gallia trying to conquer another country. Genocide was taking her concern to a far higher level.

Even she would admit that annihilating an entire country and all its inhabitants was a concerning and disturbing prospect. Genocide was something she would adamantly refuse to do. Killing off an entire race brought back painful memories of the time of the Church's inquisition.

"You're planning genocide on Romalia...?" Josette asked again in a quiet shocked voice.

"Yes. Don't make me repeat myself." de Gallia said in annoyance.

"Why?" was all Alice could say as she asked the extremely important question.

"Why? I'm _the_ Mad King of Halkegenia. I don't need a reason!" de Gallia crazily exclaimed. And he apparently did even try to find a justifiable casus belli to wage war either.

Essentially: whatever reason I have, I certainly will not tell you. de Gallia was going to keep his secrets.

"I refuse to take part in this." Patchouli quickly told him. This was well above what she was willing to do for him.

"That's fine." he casually waved off her refusal. "I have other ways."

"The nobles won't stand for this. No... Even the commoners won't stand for this. You'll be asking them to cold bloodedly murder every man, woman and child in Romalia..." Josette argued against the plan. It was strange hearing the usual subservient girl speak out against the king.

"Bah, I know they won't do this. But all I need is a fleet of ships to do this." de Gallia agreed with that his men would not comply with his orders. It was unbelievable that his army would not comply with genocide but his navy would.

"You mean to fly over Gallia and kill them all with cannons?" Patchouli skeptically asked. Bombardment from cannons seemed rather inefficient for what he was planning.

"Cannons? No, no. I have a weapon that is much better. Imagine your small Royal Sun except with a much larger radius." de Gallia released out a terrible image of a massive fireball destroying entire cities.

She was interested in what manner of weapon allowed something like that. It was certainly magic in some manner; it was physically impossible for Gallia to have developed her world's weapons of mass destruction. But nothing of the mages shown here indicated that they were capable of producing anything near the magnitude of her spells.

The amount of shock and awe de Gallia and Josette had for her after her first showing Royal Flare confirmed that.

But as interesting as it would be to see this weapon and know the identity of who created it, it was quite secondary right now.

"But... But... The ramifications of destroying Romalia completely! None of the other Kingdoms will stand for this. Even Reconquista would condemn this! Gallia would be the immediate target of all other powers!" Josette pleadingly warned her uncle.

"So?" de Gallia quizzed. "I plan on hitting Albion and Tristain too."

"So you would immediately make Gallia the enemy to everyone else... there are far better ways to go about world domination." Patchouli added while her compatriots were still shocked, yet again, by de Gallia's plan to attack three nations at once. Gallia was probably the strongest nation militarily but even then she doubted that it could fight a three way war and win. Four ways more likely; Germania was negotiating some sort of alliance with Tristain were they not?

"World domination? I'm not interest in that. Being King of Halkegenia would be just like being King of Gallia but less interesting." de Gallia admitted to Patchouli, much to her surprise; yet another supposition that was proven wrong.

Or he could just be lying. There did not seem to be any real logical reason for him to throw Gallia into a three front war.

"Then why do you want to start a war?" Alice asked in confusion.

She too wanted to know. Weakening foes softened them to your attack. Causing foreign wars kept every else's armies busy while yours prepare. He had even gathered what seemed to be his entire army here for... making a speech on how he loved war and conflict or something. Actually that waa not the most strategically smart move but regardless it had seemed he was preparing for conquest for what other reason could there be.

"Do you know how the world will look like if it was on fire?" de Gallia eerily asked them, his voice cracking slightly. "Neither do I."

What...?

"But I know one thing... It Will Be Glorious!" he exlclaimed with maniacal glee. A mad look struck his face as he laughed himself hoarse at the thought of creating the mass fires of war.

Ah... So he was that type of crazy... The ones who want to watch the world collapse around them while reveling in all the despair and anguish they created.

Patchouli sighed as she considered what to do. Currently the one she was considering most was killing de Gallia before he goes starting wars everywhere. It would certainly save many people and she doubted that many would condemn her for stopping him.

But she had this sneaking suspicion that he was hoping for her to kill him. There was absolutely no need for him to have shared this information with them unless he was hoping to get some rise out of her.

But then what did he want with that though? What could he achieve with her killing him right here and now?

She would never get an answer as she heard the sliver of steel sliding from a sheath and a male grunt of pain. It did not take a genius to know that Josette was trying to murder de Gallia. This was hardly unexpected really; most sane people would probably be trying to stop him too.

And at this point she was going to let her. Refocusing her eyes on the scene before she saw a dagger painfully stabbed through de Gallia's right hand and hovering above his face as Josette pushed down, glaring hate at the king who was continuing to smile, despite the pain.

Alice seemed frozen at the scene. Her body twitching as she failed to decide whether to intervene or help Josette finish off de Gallia. Leave it to Josette would be simple. She probably wanted revenge for her family too.

"Don't suppose... Ha... my familiar... is going to... Ha ha... help after that speech... Huh?" he joked jovially as he started to painfully push back. He glanced to her and seeing that she was only watching impassively and expecting him to die soon; he let loose another untamed cackle.

"And my plan... Ha... of killing the world... Ha ha ha... is not going to... happen. Ha ha... Ha ha..." he said to himself more than anyone else. Sighing, he looked at them. "Nothing from a failure either."

With multiple grunts of supreme effort he strained his arms and gave a hurtling shove as he pushed Josette away from him, her hand still tightly gripping her blade. Red splotches dripped to the floor as de Gallia's hand was dismembered, split across the middle. His face distorted with pain but that did not stop him from monologuing "Betrayal... and failure... Still empty..."

She had no idea what de Gallia was rambling about but it appears that Josette failed rather badly. Now would be an appropriate time to mention that quote on how doing things on your own tended to get better results.

Patchouli caught Josette with one hand as she fell backwards, her other hand outstretched to cast a spell to finish off de Gallia. The same spell she had threatened him with at the beginning of this story of hers.

Once again glistening lethal blades formed from blue polygons around her. Once again they were directed towards de Gallia in a way that would ensure his utter death. But this time; she did not withhold her attack.

de Gallia only stared back at her and his good hand went into his cloak to grab something. Strangely there was a sad smile on his face as metal blades hurtled towards him at sufficient velocity. "I still can't feel sorrow for th-"

The first blade entered his skull, coming out the other end and splattering the wall with red. The second through his heart, adding to the blood. The third horizontally going through his neck, decapitating the mad king. And the fourth struck his left hand, the left hand that was hiding whatever de Gallia held in his hand and thus destroyed the small red stone within his grip.

The King of Gallia died in an instant and the Capital City of Gallia, the grand city of Versailles was destroyed in an instant.

* * *

**Forget Koishi hell. That's nothing compared to Koishi Komeji's Heart-Throbbing Adventure. It's just so... wow. It's definitely the most craziest Touhou fan video I've seen and I mean that that in a very dark and gory way.**


	20. Act XX

**Hope I did fine with this chapter. It's certainly longer than usual.**

* * *

Exhausted from the exertion, Patchouli released her Jellyfish Princess spell, the barely substantial purple bubble fading into nothingness. She greedily grabbed up the little magic that flowed back from her spell as she slowly let herself down back to the office, which was now around two stories lower than before.

The body of Josette de Orleans hovered above her shoulder. She suspected that the girl was suffering from the intense heat that had exploded mere meters away from them. It was rather miraculous that she was still breathing actually.

She touched to burning rock only a moment before quickly withdrawing it when she felt the heat. Sighing, she resigned herself to levitating herself and Josette above the ground as she picked at her ruined sleeves, ignoring the ugly burns on her hands. She was a Youkai and minor injuries like those would heal by themselves eventually.

de Gallia was not bluffing when he had announced that he possessed a weapon of mass destruction comparable to her Royal Flares. She had never personally been at the receiving end of her Royal Flares, but she supposed that this was what it felt like if there were no restrictions and she was at full power.

"Patchouli!" she heard Alice's voice from above. Lifting her head up to the dark sky, she saw Alice descending towards her at full speed. Unlike her disheveled state, Alice seemed to be without any form of damage or burns on her and her attire. It was when she drew closer that she saw that her normal sea blue eyes were replaced with a pale violet and held in her hands was the Grimoire of hers: the Grimoire of Alice, a peculiar name for a Grimoire.

In fact she was somewhat surprised that Alice even had the time to call upon her Grimoire and use it protect herself. They had only the briefest of intervals to erect some sort of powerful barrier to not be incinerated by the explosive flames.

"Are you okay?!" she asked loudly in concern as she made the same mistake she had and landed fully onto the hot rock surface. She yelped in unwelcome surprise and she hopped back up into the air, levitating like Patchouli was above what used to have been a rather comfortable office.

"I am in the… best of hea-"Patchouli bent over and coughed violently before she could finish, her hands reactively reaching to cover her mouth. Pulling them away she could thankfully see no blood on her hands.

It must have been the dust and the ash. They were extremely harmful to her bodily health. It was advisable for her to vacate this area and relocate to somewhere where it was not so prevalent.

She felt warm hands grab hold of her and help slowly pull her back up. It did not take a lot of intelligence to successfully guess who the only person nearby capable of assisting her was.

"Thank you." She softly gave as she uneasily maintained her levitation on both herself and Josette. "Are my runes still there?"

"Ah… let me… yes, they're gone." Patchouli raised her hand to part her purple hair to allow Alice to check as Alice lowered herself slightly to get a sight on Patchouli's forehead before answering her question.

"That means he's dead isn't he?" Alice solemnly asked for what she probably already suspected was true.

Patchouli nodded, not feeling any substantial remorse or grief at his passing. It was for the best if he was dead. de Gallia had done an admirable job at making it exceedingly difficult to feel any form of regret at killing him. However; she would say that there were better ways to commit suicide rather than portraying yourself as a genocidal maniac to provoke someone to kill you.

It would have been better if he had not destroyed Versailles in the process.

She grimly looked at the ashes and rubble that used to be the white city of Versailles. The few standing structures that remained were no higher than two stories high and those seem to be either in the process of crumbling or were still burning under red flames. Everything else was flattened, the force of the catastrophic explosion easily tearing apart the core components of buildings and stripping it of everything.

Her eyes perked at the far eastern rim of the city. The white walls still stood and there were numerous buildings standing, albeit with flames dancing across them. But even then, they were but a small minority compared to the amount of the city ruined. They were simply just lucky to be outside the immediate blast radius though she imagined that those buildings would be quite inhospitable now.

And mixed in with the ashes of wood and shattered stone would be whatever was left of the inhabitants of the city. Their ashes and perhaps charred bones would litter the scared city. Josette had said that the population was into the millions. The survivors in the eastern rim could not be housing more than just a few thousands. It would take generations to rebuild this city, if that was even possible.

And this was the price of stopping de Gallia from committing genocide. She scowled in distaste as she recalled Josette rushing in to murder de Gallia. That move of hers was rushed and poorly executed.

She could not even understand why she would choose then, of all times, to attempt to kill de Gallia when he was clearly looking for some sort of negative response from them. It would have been better to assassinate him when he was not expecting it, though she could not imagine at time when he would have let down his guard.

There were also far better ways to assassinate someone rather than simply charging him with a knife. The most obvious of which was the use of magic.

"It's good that you saved her too." commented Alice as she saw the unconscious form of Josette, floating awkwardly above the ground.

"She was fortunate enough to have been in my bubble and we will need her alive for later." Patchouli said as she started to slowly fly towards the only part of the city that was not destroyed just yet. Perhaps if they made it in time, they could save some of the buildings.

"What do you mean?" Alice asked in confusion. Patchouli remembered that the puppeteer Youkai was still not completely appraised of the political situation surround Josette de Orleans.

"Do you not want to provide assistance?" Patchouli queried a puzzled look on her face. She would have thought that Alice would be advocating that they save as many people as they could.

"I mean what do you mean 'we need her alive for later'?" Alice elaborated before adding something in as well. "I'm also curious as to why you are willing to help people all of a sudden."

Patchouli looked insulted, or tried to look insulted. "Please, I'm not that heartless to leave in these circumstances." Not to mention that it was illogical for her to leave on her own as Alice will clearly stay to help.

With her back to her normal sickly state, she would not be able to travel very far without assistance. Where was she to go anyhow? The only location that she could imagine was her Duchy of Posgetemon and she was still skeptical as to whether it even existed or not.

And then there was the issue of finance. Throughout this entire time she still had absolutely no money on her at all and she doubted that she would find someone still living in this city who could see her artificial emeralds to.

Ignoring all that, she needed Alice and her vice versa to leave this world via Makai. She would not summon Koakuma based on the off chance that her familiar could somehow persuade the Goddess of demons and devils to create a portal to a completely different world. And she held the knowledge on how to summon a familiar from Makai that Alice did not.

"And we do need Josette to provide some form of central leadership. I very much doubt the two of us are going to be adequate and the number of nobles here has likely fallen to near null." Patchouli added on as they came closer to the still standing parts of the city. Now would be a good time to wake her up actually.

"Eh… so you mean that people won't listen to us?" Alice asked as she deliberated on why the two of them could not be adequate leaders.

"I am not the least charismatic at all." Patchouli flat out admitted. She had none of the noble charisma that Remilia seemed to radiate out of her very being. To get her way, it was mostly either with the use of logical arguments and persuasions or failing that, danmaku. And the second was not really plausible in this situation.

"And you aren't a noble, unless you also saved those sheets of yours." Patchouli did not bother to wait for an answer because she already knew the one that Alice would give. "Add on that you can be quite acquiescent sometimes."

Alice stopped in her tracks for a moment and Patchouli continued on without her, leaving her to think on her analysis. She glanced at the form of Josette. "In disasters such as these, a strong central leadership is necessary for an effective recovery."

That and having a lot of resources, which would probably require someone with Royal authority to authorize and organize. She certainly doubted that any surviving nobles or officials would listen to the King's apparent _lover_ and a supposed noble Albionese refugee.

"A new queen looking to aid her troubled people would be welcomed." Patchouli dully said as she continued her journey down, Josette's unconscious form still floating beside her.

"Hail to the Queen of Gallia." She dryly added as she heard slight waking noises from the girl.

* * *

Louise violently rolled across down the sloped room as she desperately looked for something to grab hold of to stop her fall. Failing that, her side slammed painfully hard onto the heavy reinforced door.

She groaned in pain as she unsteadily regained her footing. Her heading ringing as she attempted to regain her bearings on what was happening.

There was a really loud thundering noise that had reached even her sealed prison room. And then the whole floorboard tipped into a steep angle which meant that the ship was somehow sinking.

"Let me out!" she loudly cried out in hope that someone will do just that. her hands formed fists as they pounded on the door, begging to be released. Sweat fell from her head as the room steadily got hotter and hotter.

They wouldn't just let her die! Her mind reasoned that they wouldn't have gone through the trouble of kidnapping her to just let her die! But as the time drew on, her logical reasoning was crumbling quickly.

Through the door, she could make out distinct calls and shouts from her captors. That they sounded like fearful screams for help and alarmed cries of fire only made her increasingly desperate for release.

Then there was a new cry that made her ice cold all over. She couldn't hear all of it but could piece together what the message was from the fragments. The words: 'fire', 'armory' and 'explode' could only mean one thing.

She took a single step back on an upward deck slope behind her before she heard a smaller but familiar sound. The powerful force of the explosion rocked the wood of her cell room and the reinforced door was blown off its hinges right towards her.

At this distance there was no time for her to avoid it. Regardless she had turned her head around and raised both her hands in front of her in a futile attempt to protect herself. She heard the sickening sound of something snapping and her arms exploded with pain as she lost consciousness.

* * *

She awoke under the darkness with the light to the right of her head. Her hair was moist and there was something slowly dripping down her head. The throbbing pain in her arm was a reminder that she was still in the world of the living.

That was a good thing, right?

Groaning with the stress, she tried to wriggle her way out from underneath the bulky wood. She winced in pain as the burning throbbing in her arm intensified as she struggled to get out.

She gave out a short shout of effort as she pulled herself out from beneath the door, a trail of blood leaking behind her on the wooden floor.

The floor was still on a tilt, but this was a gentle slope compared to the deep dip earlier. Louise just lied on the tilted floor for a bit, her chest rising and falling as she took heavy breaths.

What now?

There was a fire and the ship was sinking. The fire reached the ships armory and then...

Louise recalled the loud thundering noise and the splintering wood from the force of the explosion. Was there anyone else that survived?

Did she really care?

...it would mean there was no one left to

Slowly, Louise used her one good hand to push herself up; her eyes tiredly looking for a way out through the wreckage. The wooden walls were fractured and sported many a hole, but for the most part it was intact, there must have been magically warded. Her tired eyes eventually settled on the now empty doorway that was now missing its door.

Her legs were wobbly and her balance unsteady as she trudged towards it, her broken arm hanging limply by her side. With her other hand pressed onto the door frame to steady herself, she wearily glanced into the next room.

The sight that her eyes laid eyes upon threatened to make her stomach release what little food she had within it. Within the room were two bodies and she was sure that they were dead. One was missing an arm, blood still oozing out from the stump and half of the rest of the corpse was charred red and black by flames.

And the other she recognized by appearance more than anything else. He was without his helmet but he was still adjourned in his heavy armor. Unlike the other man, he was still in one piece but she didn't want to imagine the damage his body had that his armor hid from view. From the wekt like marks that marred his neck, she could imagine what had happened.

She ducked her head back around the corner as she fought to regain her calm. It was just some dead bodies. Dead bodies won't just come back from the dead to hurt you.

Calm... She had to be calm... Her mother's constant reminders and her rules. Just remember those... Rules of Steel...

Daunted by the grisly sight but no longer bowed by them, she advanced into the room at a slow pace. There was another door on the far side of the room.

It was when she drew close to the body of the armored man did she stop and hesitate. She knew he was a mage and that he must be carrying a wand; a wand that she could use. But she would be defiling a corpse by looting it like that. Even if he was a kidnapper, he was still a noble...

No, he lost that respect when he kidnapped her and murdered that maid. But even past that he was still a human being...

Reaching a hasty decision, she swallowed her rising bile and tenderly reached over to search his body. She wrinkled her nose in disgust as an odor of cooked human flesh was released. Lifting his cloak away, she rummaged through his pockets in search for his wand.

When she did finally feel the feeling of a smooth thin stick she gave a whoop of success. This quickly turned a groan of disappointment when she pulled it out. It was snapped, she had her hand on only ond half and she had no idea where the second piece was.

By the Founder, what had she done to deserve this?

Not expecting any answer, she dropped her half of the wand in frustration as she got away from the man's corpse. Her wiping her hands on the dead man's cloak before backing away.

She slowly opened the next door, peeking her head out to scout it out first like before. It was a corridor which had another four doors to it; one at the far end and three on the two sides. And it showed clear damage from the explosion, unlike the other two rooms, as a whole pile of the collapsed wooden ceiling covered at least two thirds of the corridor with the rest of it having loose planks and metal pieces littering the floor.

She briefly considered climbing up through the vacant ceiling before a sharp throb from her arm told her otherwise.

With cautious steps, she moved to the side of the left handed door. She attentively reached her hand over to the handle and pulled the door slightly open.

She jumped back in surprise and unknowingly banged herself on the wall when an unknown weight pushed the door open the rest of the way.

A faintly familiar groaned as a body collapsed through the doorway. The man's face was horribly burned and his body squirmed as he futile tried to pull his body into the corridor. The man stopped moving as they locked eyes for a moment's breath.

An arm slowly extended in her direction, quivering in pain from the exertion required just for something as simple as that. The hand was open and the man's eyes pleaded for help.

Louise just stood there, frozen with her back to the wall as the man's arm slowly lowered despite his efforts otherwise. The man, seeing that she wasn't going to help, watched her as he resigned himself to death. With that, it was only the painful breathing that indicated he was still living.

She waited; not saying a word as the man's breathes became more and more strained with each minute. When her legs were too weak to support her standing her any longer, she collapsed to her knees; still not a single word as she waited...

For what...? the man to die?

An uncomfortable feeling arose in her stomach as she contemplated the thought in silence.

Louise felt a combination of relief and shame as the short painful breathing were suddenly cut short. The man's chest rose only once more before dropping to never rise again. If she had helped then he might have tried to capture her again but even so...

Founder... She just let a man die right before her.

This time the contents of her stomach could not be calmed as the green sick feeling returned to her. She coiled up in the corner as the vile bile came out.

Her stomach hurt...

Louise tried to avoid the corpse as she carefully treaded over the body, not willing to touch it in the least. Her foot knocked over something in the next room while her attention was on the man. Swiftly turning her head, she sighed in relief that it was only some sword.

Why was she so tense and careful anyway? It didn't seem like anyone but her survived.

That stray thought didn't stop her from trying to get the sword out of its sheath though. It was better safe than sorry. It might be a commoner's weapon but there was nothing else on hand.

With one hand she pulled at the handle, awkwardly trying to slide the weapon out of its sheath. It steel blade hitched onto the sheath and Louise grimaced from the effort

With a cry of success, she pulled the blade out, falling backwards in the process. Using the blade as a walking stick, she pushed down onto it as she pulled herself back up to her feet.

With one hand, she awkwardly held the blade in front of her. The heavy weight of it taxing on her one hand as it dipped downwards back to the floor. Her arm was straining as she struggled to keep it from dropping.

Regardless, she felt a bit more confident and reassured with something to protect herself with. She might have thought that it would be demeaning for someone like her to use a weapon like this but she couldn't bring herself to care at this point.

Looking around, she tried to determine where she could go next. She didn't know the layout of the ship at all and it being crashed really just made it harder for her. Why couldn't she just get lucky and find some convenient hole in the wall that lead out.

As it just so happened, there was a hole in the wall but it seemed to lead further into the ship that out. With nowhere else to go, she reluctantly went into a crouch and dropped her sword near the whole. Using her hand, she pushed the sword through first. It would be easier than trying to grab it back after crawling through.

Thus she was utterly stunned when she was nearly finished pushing it through with her one good hand when a gloved hand suddenly took hold of the hilt and fully yanked it across. She fell back in surprise and in good time as a blade was suddenly stabbed through the weakened wood and while missing her completely, still meant that there was a big threat right behind the wall.

Weaponless again, she stumbled backwards, hoping to get away as she heard yet another familiar voice cursing behind the wall. Unlike the dead man's voice, this one she could recognize immediately with dark dread. It was without doubt the dry voice of the muffler man.

She heard a grunt and a cloud of saw dust were kicked up as the wooden wall between them shook. Then another and this time she could see the wooden planks start to crack open.

Looking around in a hurry, she desperately looked for something to defend herself with. There were some barrels and a few metal tools that she cou-

Another loud crack and Louise could feel splinters flying this time. There was a gap now, not enough to get through but enough to see his face; the face that had a predator's hungry smile and a dangerous glint in his eyes as he spotted and confirmed that it was her.

Was there enough time to get out? There was no point; there was nowhere else to go. Another crack and Louise could feel cold sweat as she started to limp out of the room regardless. Maybe she coul-

She tripped on the body, landing on her injured arm inciting a cry of pain.

It hurt…

Louise opened her eyes, to see the dead man's face. Before, in her panic she hadn't taken the time to properly check him. But now that she was closer she could see some familiarity. His face was burned horribly and she wouldn't have recognized him that way anyway.

But his eyes, she remembered. It was the same eyes of the man that had shown reluctance, the one that was an earth mage. And an earth mage meant there was a wand.

The Founder hadn't forsaken her after all… she wasn't without hope just yet.

Pushing herself up, she ignored the now burning pain in her disabled arm. With her one good hand she pushed the corpse up, and quickly rummaged through his clothes, her single hand shaking and unwieldy as she searched.

Another crack and a growl with a hint of triumph alerted her. It coincided with her quivering pulling the dead man's wand from out his left pocket. Her hand quickly aimed it at the breached wall where the man was now crawling through, the sword now in his right hand.

He was already half way through when she cast the first attack spell that came to her head.

"Fireball!" she cried out, hoping for another miracle that would let her cast the fire ball in the general direction of the man.

Louise was wet. And there was something squishy rolling down her thigh. She didn't know what happened but suddenly all she could see was red. She couldn't see!

Rubbing her eyes with her good hand quickly, wand still firmly gripped, she opened them to see the aftermath of her spell.

She could see again, just in time to witness what was left of the man to fall through the gap; the lower body which was cut off just above the waist with a tiny part of the spine still sticking out. Following it was half a hand, as it fell from the above where it was blasted to.

All across the room was blood. Blood stained on the wall. Blood stained on the ceiling. Blood stained on the floor.

Louise didn't need to look down at herself to know why she suddenly felt so wet and felt sick as she imagined what the squishy thing on her leg was.

She was stained with blood.

* * *

She stopped in her tracks as she spotted a fallen ship from above. Her feet leveled out again as she stopped mid track in the windy air.

She hesitated as to what to do next. There was that huge red explosion far further down the track, it was definitely some sort of explosion of some kind and there were certainly going to be people that would be affected by it. They would need her help.

But she had seen flying ships in her brief time here and she was certain that they were not supposed to be landed in that condition. Its sails were missing, or better put as burnt out, and the structural integrity of it was in question. Most of the parts on the ends seemed fine but the center hull looked like it had suffered from some internal blast. If there was anyone still alive in there then they would also need her help.

It was this question again. Who to save first? Everyone deserves an equal right to be saved but she could not be everywhere at once. So who to…

Making a decision, she altered her course to the ship. By the time that she made it to the explosion sight it might already be too late. But here, she could still make it in time.

Her form was a blur as it sped towards the ship, arriving at her destination in mere seconds. Hovering above it, she slowly circled the ship, listening intently for the slightest of noises.

It was coming from underneath the prow of the ship. It was faint and a normal human could never have had picked it up. It was a crying, a sob that sounded full of helplessness.

Identifying at least one survivor, she listened in for anymore. But there was nothing, or at least nothing that sounded human.

At least she would be able to save at least one person. That did not stop the negative feelings from rising within her. If she had been a bit faster and gotten here earlier…

Arriving at the prow, she shoved her right hand into the wooden planks, it was hotter than wood should have been but it was a mere trifling matter for her. Drawing back, she ripped the planks off; her unnaturally sharp eyes noting the abnormal amount of blood that had soaked the plank.

Now using both hands, she began to fully tear apart the wood separating her from the inside. Taking extra care to throw the planks off the ship entirely and becoming more and more concerned with the amount of blood that she beginning to see in the room below.

The crying was louder now and more distinct. It was young and feminine, probably someone just who had not even reached adulthood just yet. The sorrow in her sobs only made her work harder.

With enough of a gap open, she checked that there was enough room for her below and hopped into the blood stricken room in an instant.

Both the sight and smell of blood was overwhelming as she held her black sleeve over her nose. There were literally blood dripping from the walls and ceilings. On one of the sides, was a corpse that was missing its entire upper torso. She could not even imagine what had done that much horrific damage to a man.

And in the opposite corner was a girl; her clothes dirty and her right arm hanging at a strange angle by her side. Her eyes were hysterical and didn't even register her presence as she slowly walked closer as to not shock or scare the girl. She noted with horror that her tears were of blood which scared her only for a moment before seeing that it was only tears mixed with all the blood that had tracked across her face.

Kneeling beside the girl, she felt nothing but sympathy for her as she murmured a healing spell. Her hand glowed a bright gold color as she hovered it over her broken arm. The girl didn't seem to notice her as her despairing weeps continued unabated.

She watched in grim satisfaction when she finished mending the arm and stayed silent as she locked eyes with the girl. The girl's eyes still failed to register her, focusing on nothing at all.

Seeing that she was shivering while sniveling as she cried, she wrapped her own arms around the girl in a hug, ignoring the blood that was tracking on her clothes. There were many things that a hug could convey that words alone could not.

"Peace… "She murmured into the girl's ear as she held on to her. She continued to repeat this as she held onto her, sharing her warmth. The time passed as she hugged the girl in this bloody nightmare of a room. She wasn't certain how long she had been here, but it was good that she was no longer shivering at the least.

"I… I…" the girl tried to speak. Her uninjured hand quivering as she waved the wand at the remains of the corpse, her hands violently shaking as she did so.

She was not surprised. There didn't seem to be anything else here that could have done that.

"He… he… wa… …kill." She stammered out in fearful tones, shaken by her horrid experience.

It was self-defense then. But she had never intended to condemn the child for the act in the first place. It was clear she was struggling to come to terms with ending another's life.

"Be at peace…" she murmured again. She would help guide her through this; it was not in her character to deny someone her aid. But she needed her to be calm and stable first.

"Ho… how can I be at peace!?" the girl screeched as she struggled to push her away now. But she held strong, she was far stronger than a weak and confused human girl. The girl once again ineffectually waved at the dismembered body and then at another behind her that she not spotted. "Blood! There's blood everywhere!"

The girl slackened as she started crying again, unable to come to terms with reality. She could feel her cloth around her chest getting completely wet from the released torrent of tears.

She closed her eyes as she waited her out. She started a small softly singing a small hymn as she let the girl cry herself out. When she was done, the girl was starting to go quiet now, likely tired from her ordeal.

"Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without." She murmured prudent advice one last time before letting the pink haired girl fall asleep.

* * *

**Nothing noteworthy to add down here aside from my desire to see more fandom on Shinki-sama.**


	21. XXI

**I wanted to get this out now since I'm going to be busy for the rest of the week.**

* * *

They had reached the still standing parts of the city now, though Versailles could hardly be considered a city anymore. It was more akin to a smoking crater after an explosion of that size.

"Shouldn't we be waking her up first?" Alice asked as she pointed at the still sleeping floating form of Josette. The girl was making sounds that indicated that she was beginning to awaken but had somehow still failed to do that yet.

Patchouli nodded in agreement, they would need her awake. She then cut off the spell that kept her floating, unceremoniously dumping her onto the ground. Of course she had made certain that she did not fall a great height or hit something jagged. At most she would get her dress dirty from all the soot on the ground.

She landed with an audible 'oof' on the ground, her eyes snapping awake rather quickly now. She quickly scrambled back up, her hands reaching for something inside her clothes before her eyes finally refocused to see them and allowed herself to relax slightly.

"What happened?" Josette asked the rather predictable and generic question one would ask after being suddenly knocked out of consciousness.

"Well… your brilliant execution of your assassination plan has resulted in the mass death of potentially millions of people and the near complete destruction of one of Gallia's largest cities." Patchouli sarcastically informed her, moving aside so to show her the aftermath of the explosion of fire.

"That's a bit…" Alice started, glaring at her friend to show her dislike over the manner in which she stated that. No doubt she thinks that she could have put that in a far softer manner.

The girl gasped as she finally saw the destruction. There were soft tears forming in her eyes as she looked at the destruction which was a direct consequence of her actions. Her legs failed her and she dropped to her knees as she took in the depressing image of the destroyed city.

"This is not the time to be depressed by your actions. That can be withheld for later." Patchouli curtly interrupted before she could get all emotional about this situation. Alice glared at her again, again displeased. The puppeteer was, in fact, going to add her own piece to this but Patchouli beat her to it.

"There will be time to mourn the dead later but now is the time to tend to the living." Patchouli coldly said as she walked over to the kneeling teal haired noble; her likewise colored eyes watching her step up to her.

The dead were dead. There was no helping those who had passed along the border in this unfortunate turn of events. Their deaths may have been tragic and saddening, they should not waste time helplessly crying and mourning for them when the same time could be used to ensure that others did not pass along with them.

Patchouli did a low wave at what remained of the city, unintentionally indicating a spread out group of survivors who were looking in their direction. They looked for worse with their soot covered clothes and painful looking burns on quite a number of them, but what they seemed to have in common was the nervous mood they had with them as they slowly approached.

From their wealthier looking attire and that they likely saw them fly over here; they would not be incorrect to assume that they were of the noble class. Considering that nobles seemed to provide nearly all forms of leadership in this world's social structure; they were likely waiting for them to take command of the situation.

And she was doing a magnificent job of providing a motivational speech about harsh reality to Josette to instill her with the will to help the remaining people of this city. She gave a sigh as her already meagre enthusiasm died. Her short lived speech with her soft monotone was certainly… inspiring.

"In essence, as Queen of Gallia, you should go about fixing your country first and then later, when you're finished, you are free to go and tear yourself apart with self-hate and anguish." Patchouli summed up for her. That was far easier to put to word.

Josette continued to stare at her with her wide eyes. At least she was not crying anymore, though that may or may not be a good thing. Crying in public would certainly make her look weak but on the other hand it would show that her heart clearly went to her beleaguered people. She was not certain which was better… _politics_.

"Um… I agree with the principles of what you said but that could have been…" Alice repeated another time and she certainly did not blame the puppeteer. Her oratory skills were never amazing.

"C… could I please have a moment, please?" Josette softly mumbled out. Patchouli nodded, this was almost certainly the point where she was either going to run away from responsibility or come to some sort of resolution about what to do about this situation.

"Take your time." Alice told her before walking over to Patchouli and dragging her away from the trouble human girl. Patchouli offered no resistance as she was led elsewhere; there was neither point nor reason to do so. She was sure that all Alice wanted to do was rebuke her for being too harsh anyway.

Pulling them into the shadow of some overturned wall, Alice let go of Patchouli and glanced back to make sure no one was near them. Confident, that there was none to eavesdrop on them, Alice spoke. "Teach me the summoning spell."

"…?" Patchouli had no words for that. She was rather fine with Alice not wanted to patronize her but could not understand why she would want to summon a familiar to get out via Makai right now. Did she not question her about this not too long ago anyhow?

Seeing her friend's confusion, Alice set out to explain. "Between the two of us, we cannot achieve much."

Patchouli nodded with that simple statement. It was a true assessment, Alice's skills were not suited to reconstruction and while she could likely make simply huts with her magic, she would likely run out of magic far earlier than the demand for them to fall. So if the two of them could not help all that much then… oh.

Alice nodded when she saw that Patchouli have an epiphany and reach the same conclusion as her. For sure a Queen Josette de Orleans could muster the resources to rebuild the city, but that would take much time considering that much of the logistics and infrastructure of Versailles was likely lost with the flames.

But there was another far greater power than that of Gallia, or more likely all of Halkegenia, that could assist with the reconstruction. An entire realm filled with demons that had too much time on their hands not too unlike Gensokyo. She was certain that their Goddess could muster them all to assist.

Patchouli poked her head out of the shadows to check if Josette was still contemplating. She was only slightly surprised to see her now mingling with the commoners and passing along orders as a noble. They had time.

She then looked at the ground and inspected it, frowning when she calculated the level ground necessary to come short. They would need to relocate first.

"We should probably check back up on her before we start." Patchouli used her head to gesture in Josette's direction. Alice was a fast learner and should have the spell down rather quickly, but there was still the matter of preparation and all the circles and runes to scribe down somewhere for the ritual.

"And we should probably ask for the new Queen for permission first." Patchouli added on. Receiving assistance, no matter in what form, from devils and demons from hell always seemed to making a damned deal. Besides she was sure there was going to be some form of political problem from getting help from demons. From the Church perhaps, though that might not matter since the leadership of Romalia likely did not look favorably upon Gallia thanks to Joseph de Gallia.

"Let me guess, demons are the embodiment of evil in their religion or culture." Alice said in an exasperated tone. It was a justified assumption; there were not many religions that did not have demons or other denizens of hell as a force of good.

"That depends; does the regular denizen of Makai have long pointed ears?" Patchouli asked of Alice. She did not recall any mentions of demons in the Brimiric Faith, though she supposed that these mystical and malevolent Elves of theirs played the roles of demons to humanity well enough.

"Ah… I… don't think so. Everyone had some natural feature which would identify them as not human but I don't think pointed ears were one of them, or at least it wasn't common." Alice carefully replied after trying to recollect her memories from Makai.

"Then hopefully no one will be calling for genocide on Makai or something equally stupid." Patchouli told her. She wondered how humans would handle beings which had wings and horns and all those other demonic features. Hopefully better than they would handle pointed ears.

"That's not funny." Alice said reproachfully.

"I know. Halkegenia would not stand a chance against a being which can create her very own dimension and everything in it." Patchouli said, nothing she had seen of Halkegenia yet led her to believe that they could defeat an actual Goddess.

"I suppose that she should be done by now." Patchouli said in regards to Josette. Taking the lead this time, she pawed her way out from under the shadow of the upturned wall and returned to the light.

Looking around, she blinked when she momentarily failed to spot Josette. Expanding the range of her search she finally came across a patch of the unique teal hair that marked her off.

Hmm…

"That was fast." Alice commented, as she too spotted the girl. Patchouli had to nod in agreement. Either they had spent more time behind that rock than she thought or Josette had come to a resolution and had actively went out to do something faster than she had predicted. It was probably the second, though she suspected that Josette was always planning to be Queen; though not in these circumstances.

The small spread out grouping of Gallians were even smaller in number now and that seemed like a positive thing seeing that the remaining commoners were sent off with at least some purpose in them. She also seemed to have picked up a trio of armed guards in mail and Gallian blue regalia.

"…ell Count Fulk to prepare for my arrival." She heard Josette pass along to one of her guards, who did a curt salute and scampered off to see this 'Count Fulk'.

"So my rather poor speech talk actually worked?" Patchouli asked with fake surprise. She really did not think it was actually all that great.

Josette did not deign to respond, only waving away her guards and telling them to leave the three of them. Patchouli watched without emotion as the guards gave them wary glares before complying to a certain degree; moving far off but still within sight of them.

"Um… did you tell them you were the queen?" Alice asked Josette.

The teal haired girl shook her head in a negative. "No. But with Joseph and Isabella unaccounted for and likely dead, the next in line would be me since my sister was stripped of her titles and name; something I will rectify later. With that, they can probably figure out who will take the throne next."

"You seem to have gotten over this rather fast." Patchouli commented as she inspected Josette. She would not say she was confident or even close to resembling happy, but at least she had some strength of will in her stance and posture. It was certainly better than hopelessness and abandonment.

"I just needed a moment to move along." Josette responded solemnly. She took a deep breath as she prepared to ask something else. "Forgive me for this. I know that the two of you deeply wish to return home but please, could you please help."

That was sincere, touching and completely unnecessary really considering that both she and Alice had already chosen to stay and assist. Though it did smoothen out asking she did not mind demons.

"I fully understand if you choose to leave and will neither begrudge you nor persecute you for doing so. But please…" Josette continued to appeal, bowing down before them now.

"There was no need to ask." Alice took the initiative as she replied favorably. It looked like Alice was going to say more but Josette cut her off

"Thank you." Josette thanked them deeply, bowing down just as deeply.

* * *

"Are you certain of this?" Josette asked the two inhuman mages. She stood nervously on the edge of a black red magic circle made of material that they had to constantly remind her was, in fact completely safe and not the least dangerous or lethal in any form or manner.

They were in a rather furnished tent that had been commandeered from the newly promoted Field Marshall Fulks who was now busy in organizing all remaining Gallian military to perform a mass search of the destroyed city alongside a rather substantial number of volunteers. And while they were busy with that, she as _regent_ of Gallia was trying to secure immediate aid from elsewhere; elsewhere apparently being from another dimension filled with monsters and demi-humans.

This did not seem to be the greatest of ideas to her, but…

"Yes. The denizens of Makai are quite civilized for the most part." Patchouli remarked as from the floor as she continued to help Alice inscribe more cold black runes on the dirt surface. She didn't even know where they got that black stuff much less what it was.

"My mother should be more than willing to help." Alice reinforced from across Alice, her eyes completely concentrating on making sure there were no mistakes with how she was drawing the runes.

Ah… yes… her mother… a 'demon' Goddess. Somehow that had a detrimental effect on how reassured and safe she felt about this…

"It's done." Patchouli said as she used magic to propel herself back off the ground to land on her two feet. Her hands were covered with that black stuff which was somehow fading away from her hand and leaving nothing behind to indicate it was even there in the first place.

She did not bother asking how she did that. There was just this feeling that she would tell her that it magic and would leave it at that.

"Right… um… are you sure I don't need any incantations or anything?" Alice nervously asked Patchouli.

That Alice was performing this and had only learned how to do so today only made her more worried. Really, she should not have agreed to something that was clearly dangerous but the temptations of immediate aid were powerful.

There was not going to be enough food to go around, there was not enough tents and buildings left to give everyone shelter, there wasn't enough blankets to keep everyone warm. There was also the matter of trying to replace everything that was lost. The palace was destroyed and along with it most of the records of Gallia. There wasn't even a treasury anymore!

Most of the trades and services that city had was gone. The stockpiles were now just crumbling ash and the number of nobles who had traveled her with the army and were now missing, presumed dead, was staggering. And the death toll… she did not want to even guess how many were in that explosion. How many that died because she lost control for a moment.

"Yes. We would not have spent so long on this…" Patchouli gestured at the black outline of the magic circle. "…if there was no point to it."

"Here goes then." Alice said as she closed her eyes and summoned her magic… maybe? She thought she had somewhat figured out how to tell if she was drawing upon power by watching Patchouli but Alice's arrival had ruined all that.

Her magic immediately took hold as the black lines simultaneously changed to a glowing bright red in an instant. Now the eerie black lines and symbols had been replaced with blood like lines and symbols. Her uncertainty to this only rose up.

And from the center of the circle, a small red pool formed.

"Now to part three, restrain it before it comes out." Patchouli commanded and Alice complied, holding out her hand in a gesture towards the pool.

Josette failed to see any visible change but there must have been something because Alice's face looked a lot more strained suddenly; strained to the point, where she was now visibly shaking with effort. Her breaths were also starting to sound far louder and were visibly tired.

"Um… Is that normal?" Josette asked Patchouli who now had worried look on her face. She certainly hoped it was.

"No." Patchouli flatly answered as she moved over to behind Alice. "What's happening?"

"It's… too… strong…" Alice grunted out between breaths.

Josette supposed that meant whatever she was summoning was too strong for them to control. That…

Patchouli looked ready to speak again but Alice lost her fight against whatever she was trying to restrain and fell back with a tired sigh.

Josette had the time to look at the glowing red pool which was now rising off the ground one last time before it exploded to release whatever powerful demon was within.

"AAAALLLLLIIIIICCCCEEEE!" she heard a scream from the circle and a crimson form leaped from the light to tackle Alice to the ground.

"I missed you! OH!" she heard the voice recoil in surprise.

Now that the light was gone, she could identify the demon… was that a demon? Dressed in an extravagant crimson robe with silver trims, her hair was a grayish white and… she looked perfectly human to her.

"Ah… mom?" She heard Alice say from her downed position.

"You… you… how did you get so big!?" she heard the woman cry out as she dropped back down on to Alice to inspect her. "You were still _this_ small when you went to Gensokyo!"

Gensokyo… that was where Patchouli and Alice hailed from wasn't it? Wait… Alice's mother was a demon. Did that mean Alice was a demon as well? She was so confused.

Glancing at Patchouli, she felt quite a large amount of relief to see that she was not disturbed by the situation. Surprised, yes; but scared or wary, not in the least. That meant there was no danger…?

"Um… lots of milk?" Alice stuttered out as she faced her mother.

"'Kay!" the excitable woman exclaimed as if milk explained everything. She certainly didn't understand how that was even a valid answer. "That means I can finally give you the 'talk'"

"I already know all that stuff." Alice flatly told her mother.

The woman then promptly got off Alice in a stiff manner. Her eyes were distant as she looked down at a confused Alice. "So you know what a moma and papa does in the be-"

"Yes. I know what sex is and how human babies are made." Alice repeated to her mother who had tears in her eyes up at her words.

The woman then turned around so her face couldn't be seen by Alice but was still in view for her. "My little Alice… all grown up now. I'm so happy." The woman wiped tears of what was probably happiness from her eyes. Was it some achievement to know what sex was in their world?

"Um… may I ask who you are?" Josette asked the woman. She knew for certain that Alice knew who she was and suspected that Patchouli was aware of her identity as well. That left her.

"Me? I'm Shinki, nice to meet you." The demon woman did a small incline of her head in greeting to which she awkwardly returned. Was this some sort of demon way of greeting each other?

"The absolute ruler of Makai. A being of unspeakable power and a God capable of creating her own reality." Patchouli said in a monotone as she looked at the smiling Shinki. "My images are shattered."

Shinki was a Goddess?

…

Her images of holy power, or demonic power were too shattered.

"Hmm…? Oh your… little Koa's master right? Does that mean Koas' here too?" Shinki asked excitedly as she seemingly disappeared from in front of her to reappear right in front of Patchouli. The purple haired woman fell back slightly from her sudden close proximity with Shinki before catching herself with a foot placed behind her.

"She's not here. We're not in Gensokyo lady Shinki" Patchouli said a bit more polite than usual. "We are hoping that you would open up a gateway back to Makai."

Shinki looked surprised by that. "Eh? Make a gateway to Makai? Ah… haha… yeah… I can't do those."

* * *

**Alison Airlines… why must you add your evil dark modern realities to fluffy Touhou? SDM is not the Mafia. Moriya Shrine are not loan sharks. Yuyuko is not crime lord. Cirno is not some drug addled, murdering, crazy loon but I will admit that Shikeiki is probably the police and Eientei probably does make illeg- shady drugs.**


End file.
